surprise!

Ping

My sister called me Sunday afternoon.  There had been another tragedy recently.  Something killed Fred.  You may recall that Fred was one of the ducks that my sister got to keep Ping company after his companion was also killed.  The only problem was that Fred took exception to Ping’s attentions to Ethel and became so aggressive that my sister had to separate Ping from the very companions acquired to keep him company.  He did have his chicken though.  She still lives in the duck yard.

Now that Fred has gone to the great beyond, Ping has the run of the whole duck yard and Ethel.  What Ping wants more than anything else though is to be let out with the two little terriers.  What Ping wants to do is to beat up on those two little dogs.  Since he is not allowed out of the duck yard, he spends his time running back and forth along the fence when the dogs are in the back yard and if they get too close to the fence he’ll peck at them.

Ethel started laying eggs last May.  You may also remember my first (and last) eating of a duck egg.  After Ethel’s first attempt at sitting on a couple of duck and chicken eggs (that sneaky chicken was laying her eggs with Ethel’s), which was totally unsuccessful, and coupled with the fact that no one wanted duck eggs to eat, when Ethel started laying eggs again in late summer, my sister would go get them and throw them away.  This upset Ethel so much that she started hiding her eggs.  My sister thought she had stopped laying but in reality, she had made a nest under the ramp to the pool.  She found Ethel sitting on a pile of eggs under the ramp a week or so ago when she was in there mucking around.

Well, Sunday, after it stopped raining, Ethel proudly marched herself out from under the ramp closely followed by 5 little ducklings.   

Go Ethel!

They weren’t really very cooperative about getting their picture taken.

My sister is trying her hardest to convince me that I need some ducks out at our house.  Oh yeah, Jimmy’s dogs would love that.