I just spent an hour trying to get the ducks put to bed. They are so sensitive to routine that anything out of the ordinary causes all kinds of trouble. Every night, I have to come out of the same door with the same bowl with the same peas and say the same things and bend down carefully and then step away carefully or I have messed things and the ducks are upset.
Unfortunately, this is getting hard to do now because poor little Anna Maria. She is getting very, very blind and maybe a little senile. She is pretty old, and she had such a rough start in her early life that she seems older than our other ducks, even though she is the same age. She is getting lost a lot, and I have to help her find her way back to the flock at least once or twice a day.
This is no problem during the day, but when I am trying to put ducks to bed and need everything to happen in the “special duck order,” finding Anna Mara with a flashlight and then carrying her to the duck house is causes some problems.
Tonight, I could never get them back on track. I ended up leaving the bowl of peas outside of the duck house for in the morning and herding those ducks into the duck house against their will. I mean, I started this whole mess at 9:00 PM. It is now almost 10:00 PM. The ducks needed to get put up to be safe.
I realized as I was looking everywhere tonight for Anna Maria that it’s a miracle she is still alive. It is a miracle a predator hasn’t gotten her yet. I pray that doesn’t happen now that I speak about it, but having a blind duck who often gets separated from the flock is a big worry. Every night that I have to go look for her, I worry I won’t find her, but then I remember Boudica.
As long as we are home (and we are home most of the time), Boudica is working. She protects those ducks all day and into the night before I get them put up to give Boudica a rest. She has done such a good job that Anna Maria, our blind duck with struggles, is getting a little senile she’s so old.
I hope this doesn’t get too much worse for a while. I want Anna Maria to have a good quality of life. I think she does. She can find the little plastic swimming pool, and sometimes, when the other ducks are out and about, she just plays in the pool all by herself. I think she likes it. I don’t think she’s too lonely.
But Boudica is very, very good at her job, isn’t she?
