The view out my window.
It’s a pretty nice view.
Sprinkler Time
Flapper hung out on Sunday and played in the sprinklers.
He likes to stand right in the middle of the sprinkler to doodle in the mud and cool off.
Sam hadn’t played in the sprinklers before, so he stood guard to make sure everything was on the up and up.
Once he decided the scene was clear, he doodled in the puddles like a champ.
And then he chased Chewy just for fun.
Flapper shook off the sprinklers…
And then had a good flap.
Sam did some flapping, too…
…in both directions for good measure.
Nice flapping, Sam. You look super cute in the sunshine.
“Thank you, treat lady.”
Oh! I’ve been upgraded from mean lady who took you to the vet. That’s good!
Toony hung out on the deck and did a little yoga stretching.
Then she hung out in the aviary with O’Malley.
And ate some bugs and weeds.
She has laid 2 eggs so far this week. That’s pretty good, and we haven’t taken her for an x-ray because she seems to be doing well all on her own. You can see the egg on the right is a little odd in shape. But the 2nd egg looks much more normal, so we hope she is just fine.
Lastly, O’Malley was nice-enough to point out this fuzzy caterpillar to me, and I was able to get him before he became duck food. We released him in the duck-free zone. O’Malley wasn’t sure if he wanted to eat him anyway, as he was pretty fuzzy.
It was a good weekend all in all, for ducks and caterpillars alike.
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In other news, I’ve started receiving a deluge of emails and notes about Joel the Spokane banker who catches ducklings as they jump off ledges. This is Joel’s SECOND year helping a mother duck and her ducklings make it safely from the ledge outside his office to the nearby lake. Here’s a link to the video of this-year’s ducklings for your viewing pleasure.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theworldnewser/2009/05/the-duck-parade.html
That Joel, he’s a good egg.
Malley and Me
Me and Malley were taking a nap on the lawn. You can see some nerds in the background. O’Malley refers to the other ducks as nerds. He calls Lily & Sam “Frick and Frack.” He simply calls Flapper “the one who must be bitten” and Chewy he doesn’t mind too much.
Today we drove just south of Puyallup to help clean out a duck pen for someone who just had a hip replaced. Ducks are more maintenance than the space shuttle, so all it takes is one little injury to pretty much make caring for them impossible.
We cleaned out Sunny the duck’s pen and it should be good for a few weeks now. It was great to meet Sunny and her family and we hope to go back again and help out if we need to.
Here’s Sunny and her human. Isn’t Sunny sweet? She is about 7-years-old.
Quacks and baahhh bup bup,
O’Malley & Tiff
P.S. Our heart-felt condolences go out to our good friend Janis whose mother passed away today. All the best to Janis and family in this difficult time. XOXOX
Jingle Bells
Jingle Bells, Batman smells, TOONY laid an egg!
Last week Petunia went to the vet. Her blood work came back normal except for high calcium, which meant she should be laying eggs. But she wasn’t laying eggs. If she didn’t lay an egg in the next few days, it could have meant she had trouble with her eggs.
Petunia had not laid an egg as of last night, so I called the good x-ray clinic to take her over for x-rays. They would not see her until her normal vet requested “x-rays only” as they wanted to see her charts and verify she really had seen a vet (or truly… they really wanted to charge me to examine her, too).
That turned out to be good, as she laid an egg this morning. It was a little odd-shaped and a little thin on the shell, so it’s possible it was giving her trouble. Hopefully tomorrow we’ll have another egg and she’ll be just fine.
Good duck, Petunia.
Sneaky Stalker Sam
Hi Flapper. It looks like you’re enjoying a nice nap on the lawn.
“Yep, I am.”
“Do you ever feel like you’re being watched?”
Sometimes, I guess. I wonder why you feel that way, O’Malley.
“I think it’s Sam.”
“I think he’s stalking me.”
Oh, look! I think you’re right, O’Malley.
“I see you, Sam. I can see you.”
“Drats! Foiled again!”
Oh, Sam?
“Yeah?”
I think you have your own stalker.
“I do?”
“No no! Flapper NO!”
“I hope Flapper teaches him a lesson.”
He just might, Chewy. And I hope Sam stops stalking O’Malley before O’Malley decides to teach him a lesson.
Sam is pretty sneaky. He loves to hide around corners and try to sneak up on the other ducks. It’s pretty hilarious. I DO hope he stops sneaking up on O’Malley, though. He’s liable to get more than he bargained for.
Think about it, Sam.
Flapper Visitors
Today Flapper had a fan come to visit him.
Cindy has been following the blog for about a year, and recently moved to Washington from California. I tried to warn her that it isn’t really that exciting to meet Flapper in person… that he kind of just stands there and eats treats, but Flapper tried his best to be entertaining, even splashing her with water.
The ducks were very impressed with Cindy, because she knows her ducks (and she fed them lots of treats). She had mostly cayuga ducks as a kid, and she also volunteers each year at the State Fair with ducks, geese and other small animals. She even had a pekin like Flapper, only a girl, and her pekin lived to be 10-years-old.
Cindy brought her friend Ciaran with her, too. He hadn’t been close to ducks for years, but Sam and Lily didn’t see any reason they shouldn’t take treats from him anyway. They were very welcoming since he had treats, and thought it was the least they could do, to eat ALL the treats he had.
Thanks to Cindy & Ciaran for dropping by and stuffing the ducks full of treats. They loved the attention and are happily napping in their aviary now.
Happy Mother’s Day to everyone out there… those of you with human children and also those of you who care for feathered, furry or scaly friends as well!
Petunia Update & O’Malley’s Magic Trick
Petunia’s blood work came back pretty normal.
She just has a high calcium level, which means she should be laying eggs right now, or very soon.
If she doesn’t start laying eggs in another day, we’ll take her in for an x-ray on Sunday. That way we can make sure she isn’t having trouble laying eggs.
Hopefully I was just over-reacting and she is fine.
I’m keeping a close eye on her. She looked really good tonight, and seemed to have more energy than she did in the past two days.
So that’s good. I’ll keep you posted if anything changes.
AND NOW! O’Malley would like to amaze and dazzle you with his magic Petunia disappearing act! Drum roll please…
Now you see her.
Now you don’t!
“Thank you… thank you very much!”
Ha ha ha great trick, you two.
“Thanks. We worked on it quite a bit. But as long as I stay behind O’Malley, it’s pretty easy.”
That’s true, Petunia. You could hide a TRUCK behind that guy. Very magical.
Flapper’s Butt Makes Local Paper
A reporter from The Spectator, the school newspaper for Seattle University, wrote an article about foie gras protestors this week.
Photo credit: Garrett Mukai
This wasn’t Flapper’s best angle, but he still made a good model. There’s room to make a comment below the article, so if you have a minute, please comment about how cruel foie gras production is, and how you’d like Lark Restaurant and Quinn’s Pub to remove it from their menus.
Petunia to the Vet
Toony went to the vet this morning. She may be just fine, but I think she’s a little too easy to catch lately.
If you recall, her sister Phoebe died of yolk coelomitis last August (part of an egg that she didn’t expel that then caused an infection). By the time I realized Phoebe was sick, it was too late. Petunia is not super friendly and doesn’t usually let me pick her up. Phoebe was the same way. Now Petunia is a little too easy to corner and catch, and she seems to move around more slowly than usual. It reminded me of Phoebe, so off to the vet we went.
Dr. Bennett and Carrie at the Bird & Exotic Clinic wrapped Petunia up in this vest to keep her still so they could draw blood and listen to her heart. I hope Petunia is doing okay, because we laughed at her quite a bit in this outfit. (Sorry, Petunia). Petunia’s heartbeat seemed a little slow, but we won’t get blood results until tomorrow. Hopefully I’m just over-reacting because of what happened to Phoebe. But if something is wrong, I hope we caught it in time.
I also remember that Phoebe got sick when I changed her routine. When Flapper had his surgery, he needed his own pen. So I moved Chewy in with Phoebe while Flapper recovered. That change in routine stressed her out a bit and probably started her infection. Right now, Petunia has a change in routine, too. Two weeks ago all the ducks started spending their days in the aviary. Hopefully that change in routine hasn’t caused her stress, but the blood results should give us some idea if something is wrong.
I’ll post more when I know more.
Ducks… it’s aaaaaaalways something.
Petunia weighed 2.60kg or 5.73lbs at the vet’s office today.
Plant Smashers
Flapper, Sam & Lily settle down in the plants to make sure they’re all smashed down good and smashy. “Why sit on the big huge lawn when you can mash some plants down?” they say.
Lily’s blood work came back normal – yay! So she has the “all clear” to go to a forever home, if and when we find the right one. We haven’t heard back from Happy Jack’s family yet, but we did hear from another place. Sam & Lily may be with us a while longer still, but we wanted to keep everyone up to date.
It was a good weekend around here at Casa del Flapper.
Choo Choo had a lot of big stories to share. He gets so excited when he tells stories!
O’Malley sang us some songs. I think Petunia liked them.
And Sam showed off his handsome pectoral muscles, hoping the ladies would take notice.
I told Flapper a story before nap time, and then everyone had a nice Sunday afternoon nap.
Hope your weekend was a good one, too.
A note about Lily & Sam: I would like them to stay as I’m getting attached, but it would really limit my ability to take in more rescues. So really… if they can go to a different forever home, they can help me save more ducks. And that ultimately is more important than whether or not I’m attached. I never said I’d keep them forever, just that they were staying with me and not going back to their original home. They needed weeks of rehabilitation. I hope you can understand. Also, it has to be the right forever home for them. I’d never invest this much time and money and love just to place them in a sketchy situation.
