As I've mentioned, I love animals and have way too many of them, I am a "rescuer" which also means the word "SUCKER" is printed on the roof of my house. It is not visible to the human eye, only animals can see it.
I swear, my feral barn cats go out into the fields around our property and find other feral cats and tell them all about their wonderful life in the barn, where they get fed twice a day and fresh water in bowls. There have been times when I have gone outside to feed them and found about 30 hungry cats there waiting for me! Then of course there are the housecats, some of which have been feral kittens who were sick or injured or abandoned and have been brought in to be taken care of then we get too attached to them so they stay.
But back to cats and ducks......There are times when I wish I just walked around all the time with a helmet cam on. Why? Because I could've won $100,000 on America's Funniest Home Videos more than once! Take the beautiful spring morning I was sitting on the couch folding laundry. My old farmhouse has a big picture window directly across from the couch so I can see things coming and going when I'm in the front room (living room to those of you who don't speak Kansan.) I see my cat Flint walking up the front yard with something in his mouth. I always try to save things from the cats if I can, (except rats, I hate rats) so I went outside to investigate. At the time we had a nest of baby ducks at our lagoon (sewer, I know we talk funny here) but I didn't think the cats could get past the mean momma duck. Well sure enough Flint had a baby duckling in his mouth, I found this out when I asked him, "Flint, what do you have?" and he obligingly dropped it so I could see. Well when he dropped the baby duck it started running, and of course Flint started chasing it, and I, of course, started chasing Flint. So here we all are running in circles in the front yard....thank goodness traffic is not constant out here, I know people would think I'm nuts! Eventually Flint caught the duckling, I caught Flint, and then took the duckling back to his momma and all was well. Later I had a discussion with Flint and he never bothered the baby ducks again, or at least he didn't let me see him! Now tell me, don't you think a video of a woman, screaming and yelling, chasing a cat, chasing a duckling could win some money?
More recently we had another cat/duck encounter. About a month ago, a hot air balloon landed in the field next to our house. My husband came running in to tell everyone to come out and see. Thankfully we had to go out the back door to see as it was early on a weekend morning and I and most of the kids were still wearing pjs. As we are standing there oooohing and aaaahhhing over the hot air balloon I hear a commotion behind me and turn around to find my cat Trouble (he earned every letter of that name,) chasing a Mallard hen. She was old enough to fly so I wasn't sure why she wasn't but I went after them, in my nightgown. Along with the cats who are everywhere I have two massive dogs who are left loose in the front of the house to keep out predators, so of course they joined the chase as well. Your seeing this in your head now aren't you? A duck, chased by a cat, chased by Mom in her nightgown, with two dogs right behind. This time we were running zigzag patterns in the front yard instead of circles. The children just hung back shouting encouragement to whoever they thought needed it most and my poor husband stood there dumbfounded wondering what just happened to his quiet peaceful morning watching a hot air balloon. The duck did manage to fly a little but then got herself caught in a corner, so I ran in tossed the cat behind me and swooped up the duck (this is a wild duck mind you, but I'm not even thinking of that) and turned around to find the two massive dogs eyeing her hungrily. So I of course did what anyone would do, I walked in the front door clutching a wild duck and sat down on the couch. The duck was perfectly happy as I petted her and mumbled that everything would be fine and we would take her out to our pond, which is about an acre big and set her free. Now since I was in my nightgown I had to change before we could all walk out to the pond, so I handed the duck to my husband. The duck immediately went nuts and started striking and scratching him, so he dropped it.....and my two pugs started chasing it around the living room while the kids screamed and ran away! Eventually I caught the duck again put her in a cat crate, got dressed and we all trooped out to the pond and let her go. She came out of the crate and flew to the other side, probably to catch her breath before she flew away.
See folks, I'm telling you, if I had a video camera strapped to me head all the time, it could be worth a fortune! Have a great day!
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