doodledee

A couple of ducks have been spending their spring hanging around our neighborhood. I've seen them all over: on people's lawns, on driveways and sidewalks, and even occasionally waddling across the street (presumably to get to the other side). More than anything, though, they just seemed to enjoy standing around on the very tippy top peak of my neighbor's roof. I'd never seen a duck standing on a roof like that, and every time I saw it I'd freak out and try to get Junior to look. "Guess what landed on the neighbor's roof?!" I'd yell, and we'd all run over to have a look. This lasted for maybe a week and a half, at which point the novelty started to wear off to the point where, eventually, before I could even finish my "Guess what" exclamation, Junior would say "a duck" and then go about his business. In his defense, having your dad point out a duck on the neighbor's roof 6 times a day is probably more predictable and annoying than I realize.

So anyway, on Saturday morning Libby went outside and found Mrs. Duck on the sidewalk in front of our house. The duck was what we in the duck observation business like to call "dead". My best guess is she got tangled in the power lines near our house on her way in for landing, but I suppose it could have been a heart attack or something, too. In either case, I ran around debating about what to do for a few minutes - do you call the non-emergency police number? animal control? anyone? - but then I watched some dude push his little kid by the carcass in a stroller and he was looking pretty grossed out and I'm sure the kid was all "what's up with that duck?" and I didn't need type of that stuff going down any more than it had to, so I went out with my shovel and a big garbage bag and packed her up and threw her in the garbage. I know, eww.

I figured that would be the last of it, but that afternoon Mr. Duck showed up. He sat on the roof next door. Every minute or two he'd go "quack?" in this concerned kind of way. It was all very sad.

Now it's been like 3 days, and he's still sitting on that rooftop for hours at a time. He's stopped quacking for the most part, but he does stand up and stretch his neck and look around every once in a while. I wish I spoke duck so I could tell him what happened. I tried quacking a few times, but I don't think he understood me.

Poor duck.