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Bad weekend for baby birds...
10 years ago
As some of you journal readers probably know, one of our ducklings this year was hatched with two badly curled feet which necessitated physical therapy in the form of crafting celluloid 'shoes' out of an old expired credit card to keep its feet flat.
About a week ago, we decided that its' feet were good enough to be reunited with its mother and siblings so that it could learn the important skills it would need as an adult duck (foraging, swimming, etc). It was all going well until Saturday evening when it was brought inside by my sister, having been found lying in the grass struggling to get up and died in our arms. Having ruled out heat-stroke, we currently believe that it may have been stepped on by a larger animal such as a dog or perhaps a calf.
Also, on Sunday a drowned starling was found in the water bucket. Apparently this is the time of year when baby birds are starting to become independent from their mommies....
Anyway, I don't normally talk too much about RL stuff here, but I've been feeling rather depressed since Ducky's passing and everything seems to remind me of it - the cardboard box where it lived the majority of its short life, the sunbeam where it preened its down, the frogs it loved to chase, the pool we set up for it to splash in... *sigh* Anyway, I'm really sorry for dropping this on you all and am only doing so in the hope that writing about it will help me better deal with the grief.
The odd thing is, I've lost a few favoured chickens and ducks over the last year and none have really hit me like this. The only real difference I can think of is that all those animals either died after a prolonged period of illness or were missing for a day or more before we discovered their remains, unlike Ducky's sudden departure...
Well, I guess that's it for now. Thanks for reading and I promise to replace this with a more cheerful-type journal soon!
*hugs for everyone*
About a week ago, we decided that its' feet were good enough to be reunited with its mother and siblings so that it could learn the important skills it would need as an adult duck (foraging, swimming, etc). It was all going well until Saturday evening when it was brought inside by my sister, having been found lying in the grass struggling to get up and died in our arms. Having ruled out heat-stroke, we currently believe that it may have been stepped on by a larger animal such as a dog or perhaps a calf.
Also, on Sunday a drowned starling was found in the water bucket. Apparently this is the time of year when baby birds are starting to become independent from their mommies....
Anyway, I don't normally talk too much about RL stuff here, but I've been feeling rather depressed since Ducky's passing and everything seems to remind me of it - the cardboard box where it lived the majority of its short life, the sunbeam where it preened its down, the frogs it loved to chase, the pool we set up for it to splash in... *sigh* Anyway, I'm really sorry for dropping this on you all and am only doing so in the hope that writing about it will help me better deal with the grief.
The odd thing is, I've lost a few favoured chickens and ducks over the last year and none have really hit me like this. The only real difference I can think of is that all those animals either died after a prolonged period of illness or were missing for a day or more before we discovered their remains, unlike Ducky's sudden departure...
Well, I guess that's it for now. Thanks for reading and I promise to replace this with a more cheerful-type journal soon!
*hugs for everyone*
*hugs the nice pokemon*