Damn the Luck

Or the lack of it. I have no luck with waterfowl. None at all. I was gone last evening for a couple of hours. The ducklings and goslings were in their new pen, where they had happily played all day. I came home and asked Big Daddy if he had put them up. No. When he went down to put them up, he could only find five. Seven ducks and four geese had vanished. We've found several bodies - not all, in the woods. B.D. swears our dogs were inside. It's a mystery. If it were one or two I would have thought a fox did it. If the little carcasses were laying around their yard, I would have blamed the dogs. It's like they were whisked away by something, all ELEVEN of them. I have no clue what. I'm once again left with this ache and this loss. Last night I was pretty much inconsolable. Today I'm remorseful, mournful and exhausted.

Still, there are five ducks left - two Pekins, two Cayugas and one Buff. And while they are a little skittish today, they seem no worse for the wear. I've left them inside. They are sharing digs with one little Wyandotte chick. I gave some eggs to a neighbor's son to hatch for his class project. One out of three hatched. Pikachu has come back to our house to live, only he's too young to go in with the other chickens yet and I really wanted my studio to be bird-free again. He's got a swank dog crate under a light with his food and water well out of reach of the piglets, er, I mean ducklings. We're down to five - let's hope four are girls and one is a boy. Keep those fingers crossed.