Day 335 of 365
Anna Maria is a little better today. She’s a strong girl and hanging in there well. It’s going to be a couple of weeks that she’s in the house, I think, but I see some progress already. Plus, tonight, I decided we had better get antibiotics on her poor eye, so Ron held her and I got the medicine on her.
Mainly, today, I tried to get her used to me. While she was in the bathtub soaking, I sat on the bathroom floor next to the tub and did our taxes. Then, I spent more time with her this evening while I was working. My hope is that she will just get used to my presence. Ron spent some time with her tonight, and I think he agrees that Anna Maria will never again be able to return to the flock.
It was very interesting spending so much time with her. When I originally rehabilitated her, she would fight me when I had to pick her up to get her out of the tub and into her nest. My arms were covered in bruised from duck bites. Ducks pinch really hard, it turns out. But no biting or fighting this time. She’s just pretty worried about me.
So, today, I just leaned against the tub and told her she was going to have to get used to me, that we were going to have to learn to be friends. I told her I would try my best to be better than nothing. Maybe she understood this because the coolest thing happened.
After I told her this, I went to work on my laptop, and a little later, I thought I felt her looking at me. She was. I turned around just in time to see her “duck” behind the shower curtain. She was like, “you saw nothing.”
But she did it again. And again! It’s like she was playing hide and seek. It was so cute. Of course, when I decided to turn all the away around and look at her, she turned around and pretended like I didn’t exist while also watching me with her one good, I mean semi-good, eye to make sure I wasn’t going to grab her. Hopefully, tomorrow will be easier for her, and hopefully, Ron and I can figure out a long-term plan for her.
Farmer-ish 