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12/06-06/07
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Ducks Do Not Have Nine Lives
Yesterday while my wife and I were sitting on the back patio of my mother-in-laws a rather pathetic situation happened upon us.Among the residents of the house is a cat. Apparently the cat had been out scouring the country side looking for anything tasty. In his mouth was a tiny baby duck.
When we startled the cat the duck fell out of his mouth and believe it or not started to scurry off in perfectly fine shape. The duck was scurrying in any direction besides where we were. Its chances of survival were slim and must have been quite some way from home.
We were across the road from the Ohio River. Lindsay and I gathered up the duck placed it in an open plastic container and went down the river looking for possible mothers. There were none.
The next best option we thought was to take it to a public pond in a neighboring city where we had seen ducks before. Perhaps one of them would take mercy on the helpless creature.
Sure enough when we drove past the pond there were three ducks just floating around. We gathered at the edge of the pond. The three ducks floated over to us expecting bread crumbs no doubt. Were they surprised when we dropped a cute little ducky in the water.
The setting was idyllic. Freshly cut green grass, park benches, a sunny sky and the voices of children in the distance.
The song "Born Free" came to mind. I could hear it in my head. "Born free, free as the wind blows. Free as the grass grows..."
The big ducks were not amused and floated off. The little guy took off swimming across the pond.
"Look at it go." I exclaimed.
"Fast little sucker." Lindsay answered.
It was almost to the other side of the pond when it almost seemed to take flight scurrying across the water.
"What the...."
Gulp!
Lindsay looked at me. Then back at the duck or rather where the duck was. "Ahhhh! That damn fish just ate my duck."
Well needless to say my wife was heartbroken. Disheartened we went back to the car and tried to gather ourselves.
At the end of the day I realized two things. The first is that ducks do not have nine lives. I am thinking they have two, maybe three tops.
The second thing I learned during a conversation we had in the car when we returned home. We had taken our kids and nieces and and nephews there to fish in that pond. My wife was in disbelief that a fish would eat that duck even though he was that small. I too was surprised. She exclaimed, "We've never pulled anything out of there big enough to eat that duck."
My only reply, "Apparently we were using the wrong bait."
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