Thursday, March 18, 2010

Just Ducky

While waiting for the fog to burn off so that I can go out and play in the dirt I was catching up on my reading in the Land of Blog. Over at Casa Hice there were geese!! A little video to watch and the sound of honking roused my fur babies out of their nap. Took me back in time .........


We lived in Albany, Georgia, many, many years ago when my children were in elementary and middle school. One year was memorable ....... I think I will call it the year of the duck. Jeff and Jill were in middle school, with a duck pond close by. We lived within walking distance, although they would no doubt disagree with me on that.


Jill's science class took on the project of hatching ducks that year. I am sure that the eggs were harvested at the infamous duck pond mentioned earlier. I was vaguely aware of this endeavor as we would hear talk around the dinner table of school happenings. I was working at a fabric store during this time. I started part-time for the discount on my purchases and eventually became the manager, then a district manager; but that is another story. Like all working moms, my day off was devoted to house cleaning.


One particular day I was tackling Jeff's room. Actually his room was the easiest to do normally. This day I was pulling the sheets off his bed ........... his water bed. (Hey, it was the 80's!!) I noticed that the sheets felt really warm as I grabbed them and started pulling. Puzzled, I checked the thermostat and noted that he had it on the highest temp. I fixed that and made a mental note to tell him later and ask why he wanted it so high. As I pulled the sheets and pillows I discovered the reason ............


A duck egg. In the bed. In the hot bed, under a pillow. He was going to try to hatch a duck. He was no doubt sleeping on top of the comforter, careful not to disturb his treasure, sweating all night. He had risked being chased and bitten by a duck to grab this egg. This egg that his mom disposed of unceremoniously. All I could think was the egg rotting and cracking in the bed. I did admire his ingenuity while I was tossing out his treasure, in a house that already housed too many pets.


Ironically, when Jill's class witnessed the ducklings break out of their shells and make their debut into the world she volunteered to take one home. She named him Howard and he was, without doubt, the meanest animal in our unlikely menagerie of pets. He loved her, but would chase and bite anyone else. The poor meter reader was always under attack at our house. He was initially scared of our St. Bernard, Nicholas (yes, his name was St. Nicholas and was a Christmas present to the kids). Little did he know that he would eventually be bitten by a duck and chased by a guinea pig named Harriet.

12 comments:

Brian Miller said...

haha...that last line is amazing...hatching a duck in your bed...oh my...

Whitney Lee said...

That's hilarious! And you have to admire his ingenuity:) After all your hard work on clearing things out you ended up with a duck anyway? A little ironic!

Jilly said...

Our pets always have the best names :)

ellen abbott said...

My daughter wanted a rabbit for a pet when she was 8ish? so we got her a miniature dutch whose name was Bunnykins or Bunny for short (yes, clever, I know). Anyway, that rabbit terrorized the two cats (long story) but when we got our boxer puppy, those two bonded like you would not believe. Best friends. Tilly would let that rabbit hump her to his heart's content (the cats were not so understanding) and she would carry him around in her mouth. Or they would take turns chasing each other across the yard. I'll have to do a blog post about it.

houndstooth said...

Ha ha ha ha ha ha! I needed that laugh today!

Teresa said...

Oh how cute! After Halloween, and I mean weeks after Halloween, I was cleaning out Isaiah's toy box because there was something stinking in there. The deeper I got, the worse it got. I finally got to what looked like a dead animal. I scattered out of there quicker than you could blink your eyes. Hollered for Amy to come and take care of "Lenny" (looked like a dead guinea pig).

She got down to the "animal" and discovered that Isaiah was saving his Halloween pumpkin. Nasty, nasty, nasty!

On another note, I discovered that we're going to have triplets at our house. We have a duck who has created a nest right off our sidewalk. Not the best place for a nest but I'll try to guard it until mama duck takes her babies somewhere else.

squawmama said...

CUTE story Kathy... Loved it!!! Hope all is going well at the campground!!! Have a wonderful day and keep smiling...
(((HUGS)))
Donna

BioniKat said...

We had 2 domestic ducks some years back and one or both were good egg layers. My daughter was good at hunting the eggs down but not to hatch them. She would eat them! They make a huge fried egg.

Boozy Tooth said...

Hilarious story!!!

I know a thing or two about rotting duck eggs myself because I raised a pet duck and she squirted eggs out constantly. I used to find broken egg shells on my bank leading down to the lake and figured the otters were wandering up to the house and helping themselves. So I started taking the eggs down to the water's edge every day and leaving them. They would be gone the next day, so somebody was enjoying the snack.

Next time you're at Casa Hice, check out the little video on my sidebar of my duck LuLu and me in the pool. It's cute.

And Kathy.... thanks so much for the Casa Hice mention on your blog! What a nice surprise!

luksky said...

Your story brought back a memory of my own. When my brother and I were little we found a duck egg at a park and brought it home. Somehow weeks later the egg got broke and it STUNK to high heavens.

lovelyprism said...

That's a great story, made me laugh. We had ducks named Dumb and Dumber. Dumber used to attack everybody while Dumb ran away. They were better than dogs for keeping people out of our yard! lol

Meggie said...

I so enjoyed this story! Our son used to take lizards to bed, & we often found them around the house, & once in our bed!