Bonjour !!
We are Gwen’s ducks, Napoleon and Marcel.
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When we were
first born, Napoleon’s bill was blue, and mine was pink (I’m Marcel, the
dominant one). |
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Soon we grew
beautiful feathers. |
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Gwen bought us at the farm store for $2.50 each. We were the cutest and liveliest of the
brood. She kept us inside for about a month, in
ever bigger boxes and plastic tubs. We
grew so fast, we got bigger every
day. We played outside every day while
Gwen cleaned our tub (she’s so sweet!), but we never wandered very far. Sometimes she went out of sight, so we had to chase after her,
crying. |
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Finally, we were
just too big to keep in a tub, and when we tried to jump out, Gwen’s daddy built
us a house for shelter and her mommy kept us safe by putting us in an
enclosure where the backyard garden used to be. Whatever was left of the garden, we
ate. |
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After a few
days, they cut a hole in the poultry wire, so we were free to leave the
enclosure and wander around the yard.
We spent the early morning hours in our insulated duck house, and late
at night we liked to take a leisurely swim in our pool. Whatever I do, Napoleon does. We’re never apart. The pool was set
in the ground with the edge at ground level.
They cleaned it for us every day by running fresh water in and letting
the old water spill over the edge. We
loved to play in clean water in our pool. |
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Here we are
enjoying clean water in our pool, two days after Christmas. That’s me standing in the water. |
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I look like a runner duck: I have that tall,
handsome, bowling-pin-on-feet shape, I run everywhere, and I don’t waddle. Napoleon is pretty too; he looks like a
buff and white mallard. We like to eat mostly cracked corn, poultry
grain feed, and lettuce. Our favorite
is lettuce salad! Whenever we saw somebody at a window, we
went running to the back door to quack for lettuce. They liked to feed us lettuce and grain from
their hands at the back door. They
giggle when we eat grain from their hands.
It’s funny. |
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See how water rolls off a duck’s back? |
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We like to go in
the house, but they get nervous when we walk on the carpet. When spring came, Napoleon and I decided to
claim the back yard for our own. We
figured the best way to defend our territory was to bite toes! Whenever anybody came in our yard, we
chased them around, pinching at toes and ankles. It was fun!
They couldn’t come around without stumbling over ducks! And when they tried to escape, we raced
them to the back door, and struggled to go inside and wreak further ducky
havoc!!
Here I am biting
toes! After a week or
two of that treatment, they gave us our freedom at the Duck Pond.
Gwen put us in
this huge, beautiful pond, and we were so happy, we never looked back.
There’s this
weird duck here who chased us around the pond for a while, but we soon
established a pecking order with the other ducks, and now we’re content. Gwen and her
family and friends still visit us at the duck pond, and they bring us grain
and lettuce. But it’s getting harder
and harder to recognize them. (All people
look alike, you know.) There are other
buff and white ducks here that look like us.
When you come to visit, try to pick us out! If you like, you
can read more stuff about Gwen’s family at these links: |
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