Funny how we have a pseudo “farm” without even trying…
A few weeks ago I told you all about our neighborhood chicken “Feathers” and her buddy “Bunny”, “Buns” for short. Well, we have some bad news. It’s been a few weeks and there have been no sightings of Feathers. Buns came around alone for a few days and eventually he stopped coming by too. Thing is, we have rabbits galore around here now of all sizes. So maybe it’s not that he went missing as much as he was a she. And she had her kits and moved on. Either way, there has been no more Feathers. She’s moved on to greener pastures – either spiritually or physically. And while that’s sad, to be honest, I’m not really torn up about it like I was with our past neighborhood chicken, Heni. Feathers never was the social type. So, it was kind of hard to build that anticipation of wanting to see Feathers’ antics and getting to know her like we did Heni.
Anyway…a new thing happened! One morning while in my bedroom I heard what I thought was quacking. Now, I have never seen any water foul near us. Sure, a huge river runs behind our neighborhood and we even have a small retention pond in our subdivision, but I’ve never seen any water foul. So, I thought I was trippin..I mean, did I really hear quacking? Nah, couldn’t be. Maybe it was a kid being silly outside waiting for the bus. But, sure enough, Antoine came home excited one morning after walking the dog to tell me that he saw a female mallard in front of our house. We thought it was a one time thing, but, she kept showing up. She’d hang out at the side of our house and in the bushes in the retaining wall next to us. Then, the male came around. The two can often be seen walking up and down our street, staring down dogs and people alike, like they own the place. They both go skinny dipping in our neighborhood pool. They both hang out in those bushes. And you know what can happen in the privacy of bushes…so hopefully, we’ll see some little ducklings soon!
Here’s a picture of the cute couple. As with all nature that tend to stay around for a while, we named them. With that said, introducing: Mrs. “Mallardry” and Mr. “Drake” Duckensmurf!
