We recently had workers at our home.
We've been painting.
(That's another story)
One of the painters noticed two ducklings running around the street.
By themselves.
Most of the morning.
He was worried.
So, he caught them and put them in a safe place.
When I came home, he asked if someone nearby owned a farm of ducks.
No, but we have a resident couple of mallards.
They frequent our fountain.
The mother was hit by a car the day before.
Hence....we inherited a couple of ducklings.
And then...we found out it was against the law to keep migrating birds as "pets."
(Which was not ever the plan....but we didn't know what to DO!!!)
So...we went to IFA.
They told us to keep them until they lost their down and grew feathers.
Then they could thrive.
We bought a heat lamp.
Duck food.
and STUFF.
We kept them in the extra bedroom
The first night, they cried most of the night.
Until...I put the box next to the bed.
Put my hand into the box.
And then they slept.
The next night I made the room ultra dark....
and they stopped crying and slept ALL night.
After a few days...
the kids took them for a swim.
On the third day,
Animal Control told us we had to let them go.
We said a little prayer and headed for the Jordan River.
We felt sad and worried.
Right away these ducks heard the babies.
They came to see what all the chatter was about.
The babies followed her.
We stayed 3 hours and watched.
She started to swim with them and took them to an under brush area.
We went home.
We cried.
We came back three days later, and she was still taking care of them
Phew.
Things turned out just "duckie."
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