A Duck Tale

Day 317 of 365

Tonight, when I went to give the ducks their bedtime peas and tuck them in for the night, there was a duck missing. It was Anna Maria! Since she is at least partially blind and possibly quite blind, I was really worried about this.

Thankfully, I found her by her voice, but she was stuck–or at least she thought she was stuck–under the deck. She was trying to get to her people in the straightest line she could, but there was a garden fence in the way. She couldn’t seem to understand she had to go around the way she came. She was just following the voices of her people.

I have no idea how she got separated, but I have noticed the ducks will start to go their separate ways for a bit in the spring. All winter, they move as one almost all day long. But the snow is melting, and there is much to explore. They get busy and get separated. Every now and then, they will call each other back together. It’s very cool!

I guess, tonight, Anna Maria didn’t hear the call until everyone else had gone around to the other side. I tried everything I could to get her to go back the way she came. I thought she would be so afraid of my touch that she would run when I touched her, but she just let me touch her. Clearly, she had bigger worries about getting to her people.

I tried the flashlight, but that didn’t make her run either. She was stuck and determined to stay stuck. Poor girl.

Then, I got wise and thought like a duck. I realized I needed to herd her people back around to the deck, so she could follow their voices out in the proper direction. This was going to cost me though. To herd the ducks that far at night would not be easy. It’s out of the ordinary, and out of the ordinary is always stressful. Always. They make no exceptions.

I hate to stress those ducks because maintaining their trust all the time is not easy. They are very skeptical. But I didn’t see any other way to get Anna Maria out besides crawling under the deck–in the mud–so I was like, “Ducks, we’re going around!”

They were resistant for some times, but I finally pushed them with my presence enough (that I learned from thinking like a dog), and Anna Maria came to their quacking and was finally free.

Then, here’s the best part. After all of that drama, I knew the ducks wouldn’t eat their peas. So I had to come back in the house after everything and sit and wait about five minutes before I went out with the peas to tuck them in. I have learned they need a re-set. Then, if you go back to the routine, all will be well.

So I came in the house and told Ron and our son the story and waited. I then took the peas back outside and said my exact words I say every night–“Duck, ducks! It’s your peas!”

This time, seven sweet little ducks came for their peas.