This happened.

So I suppose that means they are staying. #fosterfail.

I got the coop for $50 and about 2 hours of labor to clean and repair. And of course the ducks have no appreciation of it. Ducks don’t necessarily like to roost, they’d prefer to wander the yard freely 24/7. But I worry about raccoons and we have a Great Horned Owl, so I put them up just before I go to bed.  But boy, the moment the household starts to stir in the a.m. they are noisy about their need to be let out.

Water, water, water….they have a radar for water. And they love mud puddles, so I make one for them every morning. That doesn’t stop them from turning their pool into a mud bath, but I’ve learned not to need it to be crystal clear for them.

Being somewhere that they can see inside the house is important to them. They love to watch us.

I’ve been assuming they are very young – timing would make sense if they were Easter/Spring purchases and dumped when they got too big/messy/independent. They will reach sexual maturity soon. I can expect quite a few eggs. Duck eggs are…rich. A little too rich to eat like chicken eggs. I hear they are good in baking items. My plan is to use them to supplement the dog food.

Now to Jake. Poor Jake. He seems to have the magnetism that makes all other animals want to follow him every where.  Jake has wanted nothing of it since he was a wee kitten (which I detailed here, before he had a name and he was just one of 5 kittens I was fostering). But without fail, every animal in this house has wanted to hang with Jake. Bixby was the only exception to this, because he bonded to Emma quickly and completely.

The cats and I hang out and have coffee in the morning, so they can have backyard time with supervision. This morning, the ducks (and I’m kind of assuming this has something to with the sexual maturing piece) suddenly decided Jake was actually 1950’s Elvis and began following him around all over the yard.

It didn’t matter where he tried to hide, they found him. He would give them a curt meow and then look at me with scorn, rightful in his knowledge I was responsible for this new indignity. I’m so sorry I don’t have video of it, but I was laughing so hard and I didn’t want to miss anything, I couldn’t bring myself to go in the office and get the video camera.

I’ll try and get video if we have a repeat performance.

Menus later today.  Until then….

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