Cats and ducks

 

One day last week a group of us watched the aerial warfare as two young male wild ducks fought it out for the position of Top Duck in the life of a lovely lady duck for the coming season.  Mother Duck wasn't at all interested in watching the battle, just carried on poking around in the long grass for fresh nibbles.  

Around the same time there was consternation in the village when a freshly hatched wild duckling was found abandoned.  It's at times like that Facebook comes into its own.  A quick post on the township page and an experienced wild duckling rear-er was found and the baby is thriving.

The Facebook post idea worked for me at the weekend when I became concerned about a unidentified cat that was obviously hungry and distressed and was crying loudly near my home.  Residents in the village are permitted to have one cat (no dogs allowed) and everyone knows the cats by name, where they live and so on.  My cat is not friendly towards other cats but most of them get along well together.  My Alleycat has human friends she likes to approach when they are nearby, others she runs and hides from.  I'd seen the visitor at the weekend from time to time at a distance and thought it must live nearby.  Anyway, because I was concerned about it, I put a post on Facebook and soon discovered it does indeed live nearby, the family had been away at a funeral, the cat was not happy about that although it was being fed.

I can sympathise (se? ze?) with that.  During the week I've been feeding Brodie, a neighbour's cat.  He's been well fed and I linger to talk with him but each day he's looked more and more miserable.  And the day he followed me back home Alleycat hissed at him.

Back to the ducks. I love seeing and watching them but have never been able to get close enough to get a photo.  They are wild and flighty.  Then on Sunday night I had the closest encounter I've ever had with a wild duck.  It was just after dark and as I was lowering the kitchen blind I saw a large, dark shape on my neighbour's lawn, just outside my window.  I thought, "That looks like a duck!"   I peered with my glasses on and my glasses off but wasn't sure.  I quietly went outside and approached the shape just as my neighbour was stepping out his door and doing the same thing.  He quietly said, "What is it?  It looks like a duck!"  I slowly crept closer and closer and it turned its head to look at me.  Yes, it was a huge male  Muscovy duck.  Alleycat had followed me outside and was even more interested in our visitor than Jack and I were,  then Brodie came along from another direction and the duck obviously was tired of all the attention and with a loud flapping of wings, took off.

Thanks to Facebook I can show you what the duck looked like.  He was a pet who had escaped.  I hope he found his way back home.

 Photo thanks to Tyson Cook, Facebook.