September 01, 2001 ~ Still just four
There are still just four brown ducks on the pond. They are as cute as cute can be, but there are just four of them instead of five. I am afraid to look too closely by the pond, for fear I may see a small pile of feathers. Bonnie asked if Mama ducks are supposed to fly away and leave their little ones behind. Honestly, I hadn't thought of that. Are they? Does anyone know? We've had plenty of ducks stop here, over the years, but they only stayed for a day or two or maybe three, and then they moved on. Thanks for the fish, see 'ya later, bye! This is the first time that a wild duck has stayed long enough to raise her family, and I admit that I don't know much about it. It just seemed to me that she would raise her babies and then one day they would all gracefully fly away, to wherever ducks go when the seasons change. Somewhere far from here, I hope, since our next-door neighbor is a duck hunter.
Larry mentioned something today about putting a pan of corn down by the pond, so they would have more to eat. Sheesh. (Why didn't I think of that?) Really, though, we probably don't want to do that, because we don't want them to stay. If we feed them, seems like they would be more likely to stick around, past whatever time their instinct SHOULD tell them it's time to go. WILL their instinct kick in, or is this something they should learn from their mamas? OH! Just thought of something! If they stick around long enough, OTHER brown ducks will come to visit -- they come here every year. And when those other brown ducks come to visit, maybe OUR brown ducks will go with them! Whew. Let's just hope that they visit when the neighbor isn't looking.
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One of my oldest, bestest friends, my "sister" friend, is trying to give me a dog. Sister Friend lives about 150 miles away, which means that this would not be the world's easiest dog transfer, and I don't particularly want a dog at the moment, so I guess I'll have to break it to her gently. She really thinks this would be the perfect dog for us, though. Sigh... Did I mention that one of my OTHER good friends is a vet? She ALSO knows of many dogs which she thinks would be the perfect dog for us, including some of her own personal dogs (she has an excess). Why does everyone think we need a dog?
Here is our usual method for acquiring pets, and it's really very simple:
They show up at our house.
They look
a) pitiful
b) hungry
c) cute
d) all of the above
e) none of the above
We keep them.
Oh, yeah, we're tough. Hard-hearted. We haven't had a kitten around here in a while, probably a couple of years, and I was wishing we had a kitten or two or six. (Don't cluck, cluck at me... I am a good cat mom!) I mentioned this to Larry, whose response was less than favorable.
"NO! Are you CRAZY? How many cats do we have now? You don't even know, do you? Twenty? Twenty-five? We don't need any more cats, Carol."
"Not a CAT, a kitten. Just one. Little one. A barn cat. Wouldn't take up much space, wouldn't eat much. Wouldn't cost that much to get it spayed or neutered and to get its shots... and it would be soooooo cuuuuute."
"No. Forget it. NO kittens."
That sounded pretty final, didn't it? So last week, Larry was out of town, and that night on the phone I told him that I'd seen a tiny little calico in the blackberry bushes when I was walking home from the neighbors' house. I was worried about that baby, I said... didn't want a coyote to get it. It ran from me, seemed wild and scared, wouldn't come when I called to it.
And Mr. NO MORE CATS got all worried about that baby that he'd never even seen, and wondered if maybe I should go back down there, in the dark, with a flashlight, to see if I could coax the kitten to come up to the barn where it would be safer. Uh-huh.
The next day when he called, he asked about that kitten, and I had to tell him that I couldn't find it, unfortunately. He sounded disappointed.
No, I really don't know how many cats we have. The vets know. I'm kind of afraid to ask. But I think there is room for one more kitten, if one shows up.
And if the right dog shows up... who knows.
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