Can't Catch a Break

Happy New Year!  I hope your's has been restful and restorative.  We just returned from Christmas in Idaho and are enjoying just being at home.  Puttering in the garden.  Knitting.  Watching movies.  Staring at blank walls. :)

Unfortunately, it can never be a dull moment around these parts.  We are under attack by some hungry bird lovin' beast.  Two weeks before we left, it killed Cookie's dear chicken, Fro, who was slated to become a show chicken this Spring.  Dooh!  Cookie is so sad because Fro was the only chicken that would let her pick it up.

Today we returned from lunch with family to find we were down a duck.  Moose and i looked everywhere.  Finally, he found her in the frozen pond.  It was Cookie's duck, Racer, and she appeared to be dead.  He took a closer look and saw her move, he dove for her tail feathers, reigned in the bird, and whisk her to the duck shed.  Poor thing was so still, but she wasn't missing more than feathers.  She had a few gashes on her, but the bleeding had stopped.  Mr. Chevious picked a fine time to want to mate, so we had to separate him.  Daffy took care of Racer, trying to nudge her to eat or drink and tried grooming her.  It was sweet.  Cookie thinks she's a nurse in the duck world. :)  We let her settle a bit, then brought her inside for a soak in the tub, try to clean the wounds a bit with an Epsom salt soak.  She wasn't interested in eating, or swimming, but she enjoyed the time in a warm tub it seemed. 

Duck Doctorin'

We dried her off and set her back out under the heat lamp.  We're saying our prayers tonight for her. 
With our temps getting down into the 20's tonight, i am very worried about her.  But in our research, we learned that it stresses the birds more if you isolate them.  And i certainly don't want 3 grown ducks in our bathroom all night. :)

Lesson learned :: Farm animals are NOT pets! :) 

Cookie's solution--"We can't ever adopt anything else that's cute, Momma!" 

Wish it were that easy, don't you?