Daily Drama 50 – Dobby’s 7th Birthday

I went through hundreds of Baby Dobby photos to write his birthday blog, but the ones with the tiny shopping cart best illustrate the incredible growth of these huge rodents.

Dobby at 4 weeks – almost 5# (2.2kg)

The shelf behind him is another good indicator. Check him out today in the next photo. The shopping cart is there, and so is the rabbit from the waffle box photo in the birthday blog.

The Birthday Boy – 130 pounds (60kg)

Dobby would have preferred a normal day, and he almost got one. The rabbit got my attention early in the day. I heard a big crash and discovered her on top of a bookcase. I got her down, figuring I could analyze the situation later. Well, when I returned I discovered her gleefully tossing a piece of broken glass! Her mountaintop leap had knocked off an adorable antique candleholder (with an etched and fluted chimney) that belonged to my mother. Currently several dangerous rabbit toys. Perfect.

“I was bored.”

Then there was no fresh corn. I was down to a couple old pieces, husks dried and crunchy, but edible. The grocer who special-orders it for us was unable to get any, two days in a row. Poor Dobby had to settle for packaged corn-on-the-cob on his birthday. $4 off, though, a fortuitous sale. The Bartender bought all they had. In fact, he just now reported that there is still no corn. It’s sitting in a warehouse in Georgia.

I failed to put clean blankets on Prince Dobalob’s bed. He usually prefers the funky, smelly ones, anyway. But no, on his birthday he suddenly decided to get clean ones. He pulled them off his bed, and even started laundering them for me by leaving them out in the rain for a pre-wash.

Grazing in the front yard

We never do make a big deal of his birthday, because, well, he is spoiled enough already. He loves to graze in the front yard, he loves his hot tub, his hens and ducks. He loves to herd the cats, which I find funny for many reasons. Don’t make him wear hats, don’t put him in the car, and don’t be late with that noon corn-on-the-cob!

Duckling Days

A couple days ago, the first thing I did was look out the bedroom window to see if there were any ducklings out there. I had seen some the day before, but I was astonished to actually see them again, on the driveway, glowing and backlit from the morning sun! What a great way to start the day!

You have to imagine the glowing. I’ll never get a photo of that.

They live next door, to the south. I can see them from my deck, and from the window right next to my desk. I can hear the peeping, too!

There is a little ball of ducklings in the very center of this photo.

I’ve never actually seen ducklings in that little pond before this year. Maybe that’s because their cat is now gone.

Decisions, decisions.

Dobby’s little stream drops into a culvert, goes under my driveway, and into the little pond. There is a hole under the fence where the culvert dumps out. There is a little slope at one side that ducklings can negotiate. They don’t have to jump.

The ducklings hesitate at the drop-off at the edge.

Sometimes they come over to play in my little waterfall and look for bugs in the quagmire next to my driveway.

Heading around the fence this time.

When I saw them glowing, they were leaving my duckling playground, heading home the long way around the fence. There is pretty good cover that direction, even though they have to go near the street. It’s a dead end with hardly any traffic.

There are plenty of puddles to play in between here and there.

I feed the mom all year long, so she doesn’t mind me following her around. We’re good friends.

Almost home

I have been tossing out cracked corn for her. The ducklings prefer bugs, but there’s not a whole lot I can do about that.

They have trouble getting over that curb!

Their little legs go pretty fast, but they aren’t so good at jumping! They’ll grow big enough to hop that curb by next week.

Home sweet home!

The neighbors are helping to watch out for them, too.

Ducklings in the pond next door to the NORTH, too!

If that isn’t enough cuteness, there are ducklings on the big pond to my immediate north, too! I was seeing ducklings all the time there, and then I noticed that there were two moms, two broods! I’m tossing cracked corn over the fence that direction, too.

Ducklings on the north pond, viewed from my aviary.

This is the view that my tomcats have. Kitty Hawk and Grover are pretty interested, so I won’t be letting them out at all for a while. I relocated a wild turtle from the street to this pond last summer, but I haven’t seen him this spring.

Sometimes they just look like this, under mama’s wings.

In the video, you can see three dads to the far left, watching over a mom with babies. The property next door has nearly 10 acres of wetlands, so there could be more than two broods there.

One last look.