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[Mjkoaktreecottag AT aol.com]

We had an amusing situation about 10 years ago when we adopted a neighbor  
boy's, from across the street in our small town, grown Easter ducks  when 
they 
went to Europe for 2 years, hoping to give them back when he  returned.  
However, "home" to the ducks was across the street and they were  forever 
crossing 
over, running the risk of being hit by a driver. not expecting  to see 2 
large 
white ducks waddling across the street in town.  The  incredulity on their 
faces was funny!  The other problem was that some  residents refused to obey 
the 
leash laws so their dogs would run Lucy & Wimp  ( Wimpy--she ruled the 
roost!) 
so I took to keeping a large real  (broomcorn--they are heavier) broom by the 
front door and more than 1 dog got a  broom spanking or on the 2nd 
infraction, a headache.  My husband said I  looked like the lady on the Dutch 
Cleanser 
can!!    Anyhow, a  family I knew from a garden group, who owned a 2 acre 
private pond, said that  they'd take the ducks. So we put them in the van and 
travelled an hour north  with them on our way to visit family.  We put them 
in the 
water several  times, but they didn't seem to like it. The lady said she'd 
keep trying so  we left them there and continued on our way to LanCo.  
However, 
when we  returned home Mon AM there was a desperate call on the answering 
machine (we  have a home business) from our very excited acquaintance to come 
get 
our _#$%@_ (mailto:#$@h)  ducks before she roasted them!  They would not  go 
in 
the pond at all, had adopted her grandson's wading pool on the patio  
instead, in just a week had  made it and the patio a slimy mess,  pestered 
her 
constantly as she tried to tend her garden and made a wreck of her  award 
winning 
flower beds searching for insects.  So we had to close the  office, and turn 
around that same AM to go back to pick up the ducks.   When we got there she 
had 
them caged and said she'd put them in the row boat  (they seemed to like that 
part) and rowed out to the middle of the pond where  she dumped them out, but 
they beat her back to shore!  After that they  would not go near the water or 
her very contented wild ducks..  We  decided that they were intimidated by so 
much water ,since they'd only known a  wading pool and our stock tank 
previously,  and had imprinted on people so  they wanted to hang out where 
people 
were.  We brought them home where they  were happy in our yard for several 
more 
months---until they visited  the yard at their old home when we were away. 
They 
were killed by the new  renter's Husky, a sad ending to the story of Lucy & 
Wimp, but they gave us  many chuckles while we had them.....
maggie



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