Black and White Ducks

A friend brought me a pair of black ducks he said were Muscovy ducks, but I am not certain if that was true. They were lovely and, when the sun shone on their black feathers, the blue, green and purple colors glistened through.

The black male and female ducks were an inseparable couple. One sad day, however, I lost the female. After losing his mate, he tagged along with my white ducks until, one by one, I lost all of them as well.

Occasionally, I spotted him lying next to the dogs and even the cats just to be near someone, something. They tolerated him well. His apparent loneliness broke my heart so, since he was desperate for a friend, I decided he needed a duck pal. A close friend had many ducks and was glad to give me another white duck. He rode in a large cage in the back of my truck and, when I arrived back at the farm, I introduced him to my black duck – who happened to be waiting by the truck. They were instant friends.

Black and White did everything together- including getting into trouble together. When I couldn’t find them, I headed down our 500 foot long driveway, crossed the busy street we lived on, and snuck through the neighbor’s yard to find my two ducks taking a dip in the neighbor’s pond. I herded them back where they belonged- out of the pond, through the neighbor’s yard, waddling across the road, down the driveway, back to the safety of our barn. Thankfully, the neighbors never seemed to mind my coming to their yard to fetch them.

Since we lived in coyote country, I never left the ducks out at night time. Each night I called the boys. They quacked and waddled themselves into the barn into a stall opened for them. I closed them in for safety each night and they knew the routine.

Sadly, the white duck passed. It was so heartbreaking for me to lose another pet I was unable to remove his body from the corner of the stall he was in when he passed. For days the black duck went into the stall, sat next to him, and stared at him. He seemed confused as to why his friend no longer came with him to eat bugs and walk around our farm. He made his soft ‘quacking’ sounds and seemed to say, “Are we going to play? Why aren’t you coming?”

Eventually I removed the white duck’s body and found him anther friend- this time a chicken. The two of them were best friends and each day they came into the apartment in the barn, ate the dogs’ food, and then went back out to roam the yard.

I have such sweet memories of friendship and love between some silly ducks and chickens I had the pleasure of having as pets.

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