Incoming: New Girl
“Where am I?”
Tonight we took in a new girl. She is a little, black Indian runner duck.
“What is this stuff?”
She was a little wary at first, but she came around after she settled in a bit.
She much preferred hanging out with me to hanging out alone in her pen.
So she came and sat on the couch with me for a while. She is really super friendly and obviously imprinted and hand-raised.
I held her beak and told her we are good friends now, so she drifted off to sleep.
Later she was ready to go back to her pen, where she ate some food and drank some water. Now she is getting some much-needed rest. I can’t wait to talk to her again in the morning.
This little girl was dumped at a park after being hand-raised. That is usually a death sentence for ducks. Domestic, hand-raised, imprinted ducks cannot be released at parks. It is not only illegal, it is downright cruel. It would be like releasing a kitten in the forest to fend for itself.
Luckily, this duck followed a man and his dog back to their car. He just happened to be very animal friendly and his wife keeps pigeons. He tried to get the duck to go back towards the water, but she kept right by him. His wife asked “can you pick her up?” and he reached down and easily picked her up, so they took her home.
They knew enough about ducks to know she was a dumped, domestic Indian runner female duck with a slight respiratory problem and slight angel wing. Pretty amazing that the duck followed them to their car, eh? Smart duck.
They were good eggs to bring her all the way to me from Kent, and they also left a very generous donation. You just can’t look at this duck and not want to do everything you can to help her. It makes me so mad to think someone dropped her at the park like trash.
She is here now though, and doing well. I am not sure if she can stay forever, as girl ducks are usually too loud for my neighborhood. But we shall see. She is a sweetheart. Tomorrow we will take a fecal sample to the vet and if it is all clear, she can hang out in the yard with the ducks and clucks. Her respiratory issue cleared right up as soon as she blew some boogers into a deep dish of water. That is a good sign, and she is otherwise in good health.
More to come. For now, she is called “Shadow,” since she follows you everywhere you go.
Quacks and clucks,
Tiff and Shadow
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