Bill and Bella the Ducks

I don't know how to write about this.

My heart is broken.

I will start at the beginning.

One day my friends Angie and David asked me if I would be willing to take in two ducks which they had taken from a man who was neglecting them. I said sure, bring them.

The ducks arrived at my house very early the next morning. They were in a small cage which I carried into my bird room.

I got a larger cage from my back room and put newspaper in it. Then I went outside and took a few flakes off a bale of hay and spread the hay out on top of the newspaper in the cage.

After I had put out food and water near the cage, I carried the small cage with the ducks in it very near the larger cage. I opened the gate on the small cage and lined up the openings on both cages so that the ducks would go right into the large cage when they left the small one.

Once they were in the bigger cage, I moved the smaller one away. This way they would know it was okay to be in the big cage. And because the gate was open the could come out if they wanted .

They did venture out soon enough and discovered the food and water. They had a feast and then returned to the cage. They seemed to like shuffling their bills in the hay. After a short time they returned to the food and water.

Ducks are very vocal and the whole time all of this was going on, they were quacking and quacking. The female was the louder of the two. I just sat on one of the plastic seed bins and watched them.

They began to try to toss water from the water bowl onto their backs. Hmmm....

I went to the bathroom and ran the cold water into the tub and let it get a few inches high. Then I went back to the bird room and caught the female (and I did have to chase her around a bit) and carried her to the bathroom. The male followed us. QUACK QUACK QUACK the whole while from both of them. I put her in the tub and scooped him in with her. How much they loved that was so evident. I have pictures. They had not had a bath in a very long time. I had thought they were dark brown ducks but now there was white showing on the female. I had to drain the water while they were still in the tub and run some more clean water. The photos are from the second fill.

When they decided they were done, they climbed out and I kind of herded them back to the bird room.

There was a lot of wing-flapping and shaking of feather and water was everywhere. When the male spread his wings I noticed that one of them didn't go up very far. He wasn't acting like it hurt so I assumed it wasn't a fresh injury, but I felt bad for him, imagining what life must have been like for him. Birds do like to use their wings...

I left the ducks to groom their feathers and when I checked on them later they were napping in the cage. Well they were napping until they heard me. QUACK QUACK QUACK QUACK until I left the room. I don't think they were too fond or trusting of humans.

I decided that the ducks should have names and I emailed a bunch of people asking for suggestions. I got some nice responses, but decided to go with the names suggested by my friend Raff: Bill and Bella.

The second day I ran water into the tub for Bill and Bella, as they were to be named later. I went in and caught Bella again and carried her to the tub with Bill following. I had to give him a boost in. The outside of the tub is straight up so he could not jump in. The inside is sloped and not as high so it allows them both to jump out when they want.

I left them to splash around.

After a while they came quacking out of the bathroom and headed for the birdroom on their own.

The third day when I ran the tub for them and opened the door to the birdroom they both came right out and headed for the tub on their own. I had to lift the eager bathers into the tub.

I discovered that anything you got the ducks to do twice, they would cooperate the third time. Whatever new routine I devised, they would be right with the program on the third day. My one-eyed duck, Henry, was the same way. Actually, now that I think about it, my chickens have a two to three day training period also.

I NEED TO BREAK IN HERE...
I started writing this post over a month ago and I couldn't write further because it makes me too sad. Let me just blurt out what happened...

I had to find a new mate for Bella... His name is Beanie Baby and I got him from the Animal Rescue League. He is a spunky little booger and Bella likes him just fine. He is totally enamoured of her....

Yes, well, Bill was killed by a hawk. Bella made mournful, pleading quacks all of her waking hours until I presented her with her new companion 3 days later.

I love Beanie Baby too. He's got a great spirit. I was told he is under-sized because of the "competition for food" where he was, but he makes up for it with boldness.

I hope he and Bella have a very long life together.