Duckie Update

I just realized that we had another duck re-arrangement in the past few months that I missed sharing with you duck fans out there.

Sadly, Terry (Teresa of Avila) died this fall. Somehow she picked up a bacteria that caused a severe infection in her heart. Apparently ducks appear perfectly fine, as did Terry, until they are at death's door. I know people like that — stoic to the literal end. I'm not convinced this is a great idea.

Anyway, Terry was fine until the evening we tried to put her into the duck house for the night and she didn't want to move from under the bush. One of the sisters thought she might have an injured leg, as she seemed unable to get up. She picked her up, called me and we headed off for the vet. Though the doc saw her quickly, she had just died in sister' arms when the vet entered the examining room.

The vet said she had been very ill for months, but ducks just do that stoic thing. There was nothing that could have been done with the amount of bodily damage Terry had suffered by the time she began to show signs of trouble.

We've kept a close eye on the rest of the flock, but so far everyone seems to be just fine. Luckily, this seems to have been an isolated infection. I do think the loss was hard on the little duck family, though. Everyone has been a little more subdued; the egg production slacked off, Petra has been in brood mode for months ... death is a difficult part of life for just about everyone. So we do what we can, we continue to love each other, we celebrated her little duck life, and we appreciate every day, every egg, every funny little waddle that our precious duck family shares with us.