Hamish’s girlfriend, Bev the duck, flew away and then came back. The end.
Seriously, she just up and flew away during Garden Party one afternoon. The Farm Manager was not pleased, but what was I supposed to do? Learn to fly and take off after her? I figured my job was to keep watch over the remaining flock rather than abandon everybody for one fool. Anyway, the Farm Manager looked high (on the roof) and low (under Hamish’s bed) for her and then finally locked everybody up for the night.
Bev’s pretty tough. Before she came here she lived at a small lake north of here, very suburban, in a small park. Bev is a Muscovy duck, a South American species, and not at all suited for living in the wild up here. A nice human (named Beverly) noticed that Bev was too friendly to be living rough right before Thanksgiving. She had probably been someone’s pet and would have gladly and innocently gone home with someone for “dinner.” And that’s how she ended up here, but also why she might have decided to check out the pond next door.
Come to think of it, that’s how Carmen ended up here, too. Sort of. She’s also a muscovy. She was part of a small flock of ducks and hens but she had a bad habit of flying away. It was distressing to her owner, and to everyone else in the neighborhood recruited to capture her, again. She came here a few years ago and has been behaving herself ever since.
So anyway, the day after Bev flew away, a next door neighbor dropped by to let the Farm Manager know she had seen one of our ducks hanging out by the fence. They chatted a bit about Dobby and days gone by when he used to hang out on our side of the fence and chat up the girls next door. It’s not the first time a Muscovy duck has gone walkabout, but the coyote population has recently gotten a bit more visible, so there’s more suspense involved when someone flies the coop.
When the Farm Manager came around to the back, Bev had already flown up to our roof, but she wasn’t ready to come down. When Hamish came around, she flew right down to him. The Farm Manager shooed her into the aviary, and I herded the flock in after her, to be locked up safe.
Bev (back) and Carmen (front) eating duck food.
The next morning, the Farm Manager grabbed Bev and hacked off delicately trimmed her flight feathers. To my surprise, she moved right on to Carmen and chopped off a bunch of wing feathers on her, too! That seemed kind of unfair, but it did make an impression on the rest of us! Nobody’s making flying jokes any more.
Perspectively submitted,
Norman
Stacy's Funny Farm 