Ok, not really duck 'walking'... more like 'duck-caring'.... In my Oh-so-intelligent mother moment yesterday, I agreed to allow my children to raise ducklings. WHAT? you might ask.... You see, I simply can not resist 2 things ... the first thing - adorable baby animals of any kind (except insects or spiders, which are most defnitely NOT adorable...) and the second thing - the pleading eyes/voices of my offspring. Therefore... We are now the proud care-takers of 6 little 3 day old ducklings, henceforth known as: Quackmire Sir Quackington Cheese Quackers Nigel Puddles The picture above is of Cheese and Quackers :)
These ducks are all mallard ducklings - well known in the duck world as 'social' ducks, and will do very well at 10 or so weeks of age to be released into the pond at my parent's cabin. They are adorable. They are not loud quackers (yet). They don't eat as much as I thought they might. They think their water bowl/feeder is a swimming pool already. And their dark little eyes, downy ducky bodies and tiny webbed feet are the cutest.thing.EVER!!! That being said - my youngest daughter had friends spend the night last night and the girls were up til 4am 'taking care of the ducks'. They arose again this morning at first quack (approx 7am) and there are now 6 tired ducklings and 3 tired girls residing in my living room. HAHA!! I believe in allowing the kids to explore wildlife and personally I think that raising a few ducks will be fun, not too challenging, and a good lesson in 'the circle of life' - as these ducks will never really be domesticated (HOA rules most likely say that I can not keep the ducks in the yard as pets) and they are not likely to really stick around at my parents cabin - ducks will revert back to 'wild' relatively quickly. However if they do choose to remain on the pond for the summer and fall then the children will be able to watch them grow. The kids are already asking about raising chicks next year - they think Grandma and Grandpa need a henhouse!! I think I won't mention that to my Dad quite yet....