So here’s what happened yesterday morning…

Back across the road towards the lake…

Another important duck conference…The consensus was Oh HELL Naw!

Back home…hop on the wall…

First one in is a lucky duck!!!

Tune in tomorrow for the third and final installment of “As the Duck Turns”.

So the ducks are occasionally flying out of my yard and wandering the streets trying to figure out how to get back in.  By the time we find the escapee, he’s frantic and his siblings are too. But wait…Don’t I WANT them to fly away? Yes, but not one at a time. They need to get to the lake as a family and figure out how to be regular ducks together. So yesterday we hatched a plan to make this happen.

At about 6:00 am, Jim and I started slowly herding the little quackers out of the yard and into the street toward the lake.

We live less than 100 yards from the waters edge, and we weren’t sure how hard it would be to get them there.

So far so good. Jumped the stone wall and on to Martha & Irl’s driveway. (sorry about the poop guys, I’ll hose it off later)

They did not observe the stop sign.

Nor did they look both ways.

They admired the view and had a conference in duck language.

I’m not gettin in! Are you gettin in? No way Jose! It looks kinda scary!

We stayed with them for about 45 minutes trying to herd them in to the water with no luck. Finally they turned the opposite direction and…

Across the street toward Irl’s driveway…

Up the sidewalk…

Hop up on the wall…

Back to the back yard and their pink plastic baby pool.

Sigh.

Some days I don’t really have a theme for a blog post but I just want to share some snippets of our FABULOUS life (mostly animal stuff).

Tony scales our privacy fence like a sherpa! We’ve seen him leap to the top many times and almost can’t believe our eyes.

You NEED me on this wall!

He does this when he’s not stalking ducks.

I just wanna TASTE one.

Never fear. He’s actually afraid of them. Alpha duck chased him out of the yard yesterday. Don’t tell anyone. Tony doesn’t want to lose his street cred.

And speaking of ducks…

These crazy critters are practicing flight. I’ve seen two of them get about three feet of air and travel 6-7 feet across the yard. I’m never able to catch them on video, but here’s a cute one showing mayhem.

Rowdy and Sammy wanted in on this post, so here’s a photo of my enormous lady cats with boys’ names (the shelter named them when they were babies and got all the sexes wrong)

We so pwetty.

We’re still enjoying our pretty water feature/memorial garden.

I recently met up with some dear friends I hadn’t seen in a long time

Pretty as Peacocks.

And finally, can anyone tell me why only ONE of the crape myrtles is blooming at the Pink House?

I’m clueless.

I found out that the three ducks that came from Mobile are NOT mallards. They are WOOD DUCKS. They’re smaller and they’ll look like this when they’re mature.

Male

female

There are currently no wood ducks at The Waters, but they are native to this region, so they should do fine here. For two days in a row a duck has flown out of my yard and waddled in the street until we could herd him back in. Tune in tomorrow to see what happened when we tried to “escort” the gang to the lake.

PS…Bella the bunny is fat and happy. I’ll get a cute pic of her tomorrow.

Jim got this nickname when he was on a military assignment in Korea. It happened in a bar after an encounter with too much soju. The details shall remain undisclosed, but I called him “monkey boy” for an entirely different reason while he was building the garden/water feature.

agility

balance

flexibility

Would Jim appreciate me putting these butt views on my blog for all to see? Or the great fashion statement he’s making with the CROCS & socks?!?! No, he would not! So don’t tell him. He doesn’t read the kittybunnychicken, and what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him. If this guy kicks the bucket, I’m going to have to hire a gymnast to maintain this garden. I actually tried to pull some weeds yesterday and nearly fell headfirst into the pond. Come to think of it, if Jim does leave me on this Earth alone, I’m going to have to hire a team of cooks, scientists, laborers and mechanics to maintain my lifestyle. I really should be nicer to that boy.

Speaking of the garden…we added some solar lights and candles for night time enjoyment.

They come on around 8:00 so stop by for a gander if you’re out walking the hood.

Tony loves to drink from the from the garden and pretend he’s a dangerous mountain lion patrolling his territory.

Yes Tony, you look really fierce dude!

Rowdy, on the other hand, likes to pretend she’s a beautiful kitty queen statue.

Kitty Queen! Bow before me peasants!

When she’s not playing in her toilet paper fort!

Don’t see me!

How are the ducks you ask? Huge, disgusting and a giant pain in the a**! But here’s a cute video of their daily pool party.

I am so ready for these guys to fly away! They’re destroying our sod and making my back yard smell like a zoo. Sorry Martha & Irl. Just a few more weeks I promise!

Thank you Jim. It’s beautiful.

DUCKS ARE NOT EASY! I MISS CHICKENS! Whew. OK that’s out of my system. So arranging my back yard to accommodate a nice little bunny and five #@!%#$% ducks is consuming a lot of my day. But, I signed on for this adventure and I’m going to see it through. Until they can fly, they will be with me for at LEAST four or five more weeks. The first lesson I learned about the care and feeding of ducks is that they need “pond weeds” to eat. This is the mucky stuff that grows along the edge of the lake near my house. They need the nutrients in the plants and micro-organisms that grow in the water for nutrition. Plus domestic ducks who will eventually released in the wild NEED to learn to eat this stuff and get their digestive systems used to it so they will know what it is when they are returned to the wild.

This stuff is GROSS and the first time I got some I almost fell in, plus I got goose poop all over my knees! So guess whose job it is NOW to get the pond scum (this is our pet name for it). Poor Jim. He retrieves this gunk every two days so the ducks can have their yummy and disgusting treat.

The next thing they need is a place to swim. They know how to swim instinctively of course, so I didn’t need to get them a Red Cross instructor, but they do need to practice so they can exercise their muscles. Their wings need strength so they can fly and they need to learn to dive to get most of their food. It’s so fun to watch them in the water. Their first pool was a small Rubbermaid tub.

Later they graduated to a pink baby pool.

There’s lots of information about what to feed ducks and I’m trying to get the stuff they need from feed stores and pet stores. They’re transitioning from “starter” food to “adult” food gradually. We give them worms when we find them, plus chopped lettuce and all the bugs and grass they can eat from the yard. So far this experience has been 50% fun and 50% pain in the butt. Bunnies and kitties are sooo much easier!

Tony is very low maintenance.

Bella sleeps indoor with us most nights and sometimes Mulder gets confused.

That’s MY house you stoooopid cat!

I’m sure she misses Bandit, but she has a very pampered bunny life with us.

Why yes this salad IS organic!

That’s all the animal news for now. Some readers are anxious to see the results of the Memorial Garden and I can’t wait to show you how it turned out! Jim has a couple of tweaks before I’m allowed to share so keep coming back please. It’s the most beautiful project we’ve ever undertaken and I’m very proud of my smart, creative, hard-working man. Don’t tell him I said this. He HATES mushy stuff. 🙂

So my five ducks are growing nicely despite MY COMPLETE IGNORANCE on raising waterfowl. I keep the inter-webs burning up with constant questions and guidelines on proper care and feeding of these little quackers. The average age of the two groups is three weeks, but in truth, the two oldest are probably 4-5 weeks old and the smallest are 2-4 weeks old.  Our target release date is between June 8-13th. It depends on their ability to fly so like our president is fond of saying “We’ll see what happens”.

Rowdy plays lifeguard on their early swimming lessons.

Friends continue to drop by to visit the zoo. Last evening the Norris team stopped in for a ducky experience.

Most full-grown females turn into little girls when playing with little kitties, bunnies, chickens…or ducks. Michelle was no exception.

Poor Bella has been displaced from the coop by these annoying little guys. Fear not, we have temporary accommodations for her during the day and at night she sleeps in the house with us. After they leave, she’ll be queen of the coop once again.

Bella planning the demise of the #@!#@ DUCKS!

So much for my pet projects. Jim’s has nothing to do with pets but he has been working like a DOG!

Memorial garden in progress!

We changed our minds about hiring out this project. If you know us, then you’ve figured out it’s because we’re frugal (cheap) and wanted to save money doing it ourselves. But another reason is that it’s actually fun and more meaningful this way. Yes, Jim has all the grunt work and engineering problems to work out with the rocks, waterfall and pond, but then I’ll take over with the plants and “pretty-ness”. We (he) works on it each night when he finishes teleworking, and most of the weekend as well. It should be finished by this Sunday so stop by for an inspection.

Now I have five baby ducks. Yesterday I got a call from a friend and neighbor, Melissa asking if I could take more. The story is kind of complicated, but the gist is that her friend’s mother who lives in Mobile had three orphaned ducklings whose mommy had been killed by a feral cat. So Melissa’s friend, Sharla (a Waters neighbor I had not met) told her mom that there was a person in the neighborhood who rescued ducks. The ducklings made their way from Mobile to my house last night about 6:30 via Sharla and her daughter.

Good vibes indeed ladies! 🙂

Their three babies are at least five days behind my original two. Look how tiny she is in her hands. I tried to get a picture last evening when we put them all together in the coop but it was too dark to get a clear image. Within 10 seconds of putting the new babies in the coop all five were huddled together like proper siblings.

I have been keeping my original ducklings in a little cage in my dining room for the first week. I put a heat lamp on them since they can’t regulate their body temp right now.  I was astounded by Rowdy’s attentive care and concern for their welfare.

I’ll make sure nothing hurts these little duckies on my watch!

Later Sammy joined her in her vigil to protect the babies.

I’m hoping that cage can support the combined weight of these voluptuous lades.

Earlier in the day, the ducklings took their first swim in a pie pan.

Trust me, they had a blast in their little swimming pool but jumped out every time I tried to take their picture.

My sweet bunny Bella seems content without her brother, but how can you really know what  bunny feels? We pay her lots of attention and give her good food and treats. Here she is enjoying her morning salad.

Bella and the ducklings share the coop for now. She doesn’t seem bothered by them at all. They think she’s a big scary monster trying to kill them. Most of her coop time is spent upstairs and all of the duckling’s time is spent downstairs on the grass so fortunately they don’t get in each other’s way. Bella gets run-around time in the yard, but the babies are too little for that. At this point, they can slip between the pickets of my fence. When they’re bigger, I’ll let them take over the yard as well.

I’m doing the best I can. Ducks are waaaay harder to raise than chickens, I can tell you that! Anyone with advice is more than welcome to give it to me. I’ll try not to “quack” up!

Hmmmmmm…does that sound a little racy?  Calm down. I just have an influx of female visitors since I gained some animal cuteness in my back yard. Soon after I was gifted with a tiny duckling last week, I was the happy recipient of ANOTHER abandoned baby by a kind neighbor who rescued it from certain death. (Thank you Vicki!)

duck…duck…

This was lucky for both babies since they have a much better chance of surviving together rather than separately.

These beauties named them Molly & Milly. But they might actually turn out to be Bobby & Billy! 🙂 We won’t know for several weeks.

And they just keep coming!

YOU again?!?! 🙂

This little cutie may LOOK evil, but she was very gentle and sweet.

Can I have your hair?

Some “older” young ladies also made an appearance on my back porch for some ducky snuggles.

Or should I say “well seasoned”

I wish I only had happy stuff to talk about today, but I have sad news about Bandit. After consulting with the “Bunny” Doc at Auburn Vet School, I made the decision to have him euthanized. His break required complicated surgery and then weekly bandage changes for a couple of months. The doctor was also skeptical that Bandit would even survive the anesthesia and/or surgery itself. Jim and I are very sad, but I’m sure we’re not as sad as Mary who was his mommy for eight years. She is a kind & beautiful soul who has spent many years rescuing bunnies and other animals. I’m very sorry Mary. I promise to give Bella the very best life she can have without her sweet brother.

I was feeling quite satisfied with our new bunny situation when we had an unexpected setback on the third day after the arrival of Bella and Bandit.  Our cats were lazing in the back yard while I let my two new little pets run around and enjoy the weather. My cat Tony got the idea that Bandit wanted to play so he joined in the frolicking.  My cats have grown up with bunnies and chickens all their lives and know that they are not allowed to harm them. But I should have known that it was a bad idea to let Tony near them so soon. How could Bandit know that he wasn’t on the menu.

That kitty scares me! Stay close Bella!

Bandit did what all bunnies do when they are scared and want to signal danger. He THUMPED. A lot. At first I wasn’t concerned. I just picked Tony up and put him indoors. Then I saw Bandit limping. He had broken his foot. He’s an old guy and I guess his bones weren’t up to the vigorous thumps. Of course we took him to the vet and they did an x-ray. Yep. Broken. We weighed all our options and made a plan. The vet wrapped his foot, gave him an antibiotic and pain med and I took him home to recover in my laundry room. He may walk funny the rest of his life but hopefully his bones will stitch together on their own.

So sorry Bandit. Your other mommy had you for 8 years and you were fine. I have you for 72 hours and you have a broken foot. 😦

His vet is confident that he will mend and be back to normal in a few weeks. Meantime we give Bandit and his sister, love and lots of treats. He’s eating, drinking and getting around well. He just holds his foot off the ground when he moves. Poor baby.

At least Miss Mattie got to visit you before you were hurt.

And then…

This happened.

A baby duck was found alone in our neighborhood. No mommy or siblings in sight. A neighbor (thank you Raina) captured him and she and her sweet daughters brought him/her to me. So now I have two bunnies in my laundry room and a baby duck in my bedroom.

I had all the supplies from my baby chick days.

Mulder gave her a quick pat on the head before I put her in her new ducky house.

AND…

These guys will be at my house Saturday looking for a forever home!

More on these hooligans later

So I’ll say ta ta for now from the Burlingame KittyBunnyDuck Rescue Ranch and Spa.  It’s a madhouse, but it’s a fun house. 🙂