A Change In Our Regularly Scheduled Programming...

There is more to life than ducks. (SHOCKING!)


In my post "Ducks! 2009", you were briefly introduced to another back yard dude, Iggy!
Now, the first time I "met" Iggy, he was using my pool as the commode :(

Igg is a 4-5 foot Iguana, that likes to sun himself on the patio. He is a big fan of grapes & bananas. Eats them right out of my hand!


Don't sunbathe and leave your feet down - he will mistake your toe for a grape! Yes, I still have all ten digits. ^_^

Will The Hatching Ever End?

Once it started, it seemed it would never stop. What an amazing event to witness. When I thought it was over, at about 2:00 on Saturday, I set the 6 dormant eggs in another area of the garage. I came out an hour later and heard peeping. Holy cow! More are going to hatch? It started at 1:30pm on July 31, 2009 and the last one (with my help) emerged at 6:00pm on Saturday,  August 1, 2009. In the end - out of the 15 eggs, 12 hatched.

Off to Wal-Mart!

Backing up a smidge, when the eggs started peeping and pecking, I ran to Wal-Mart. I had been doing some research on what to do once they hatched. I needed a "chick brooder" to place them in while they dried off, and stabilized.


Wal-Mart has tons of plastic bins so I got the largest one I could find. I got home, placed a towel inside and put it on top of the heating pad. A water bottle substituted for Mama. Baby chicks cannot make their own body heat for sometime, so this was important!

Peck, Peck, Push, Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Freedom

The partially opened egg is Angel. I had to pry her out. After 24 hours she needed help. Her beak still bears a battle scar.

Meet Spentie~

My first hatchling, I vowed to name after Speck and Runtie.

Please meet Spentie...

OMG! Peeping and Pecking!

Friday, July 31st, 2009 - the
 eggs are making sounds and pecking.

I can't believe it! Peep, peep! I am thrilled, scared and filled with anticipation! It does take quite a while for those little souls to peck out of those shells. I was working that day. I would run down about every 30-45 minutes and check on their progress.

This is Where The Crazy Duck Lady Comes On Scene

I threw two towels over the eggs in their nest, and started calling every animal control facility I could find. All of them told me the same thing. Put the eggs in the freezer to kill them. It's the only humane thing I could do. They can't survive without their mother. I explained that their gestation period was almost exhausted! We are down to mere days until they will hatch!!! Same reply. WTH?

I found a basket, laid towels in it, scooped up the eggs and layed them gently inside. I got a heating pad, and put the basket on top.

The eggs were warm when I picked them up.

They're alive! :) Then I waited....

July 19th, 2009

A beautiful Sunday morning. I am so excited because I have a veterinarian and his family (my BFF) coming to stay with us before their vacation. (maybe he can teach me something about ducks since he grew up on a farm). I go out back and start cleaning off the patio and the patio table. I noticed that Speck, Runtie's sister who has been on a nest in my yard for 2+ weeks is not on her nest. I kept hosing & looking up and down the canal. No sign of her. I moved to another area of the patio and start seeing feathers, lots of feathers. I follow them and down along the fence is Speck. She had the same fate as Runtie. It's bad. I ran and got my husband. We wrapped her in a towel and buried her next to Runtie. What about the eggs????? :(

April 28, 2009

This particular morning I went out back
and found Miss Runtie dead next to the pool fountain.










To say it was a gruesome death is an understatement.

What could have done such destruction?


I buried Miss Runtie in my side yard and then got on the phone. I called every "animal" entity I could find, even my home owner's association. I kept getting the same reply. "Unless you have an alligator in your yard, and you can see it, we can't help you". WTH?

                         So now I'm ticked....


...And full of vengenance. Dad and I went out and bought a trap. As I said,  I'm a city girl. I have never trapped anything! What in the hell am I doing? The trap box had lots of bait ideas. The first two nites I caught baby possums. I drove them out of the neighborhood and let them go. The third nite....

Check it out!!  A 30 pound Raccoon!!

I threw a blanket over the cage and The Engineer and I put it in the car and we drove it 5 miles away and let it loose. Take that you bugger! (The raccoon ripped the blanket to shreds).

Ducks! 2009~

So life goes on. Mama has a another clutch of eggs.

Out of the 11 - 4 survive. O.P. (short for Oinko Piggo), (whom you meet later),

Speck and Miss Runtie. Here is Runtie and Mama. Note the big Iguana in the back? That's

Iggy.

In The End.........

None of the babies made it. One day, Mama and her last baby came by at 9:00am. She had "Lucky" in tow. I never saw him again....

We Miss You Lucky~  :(

A Picture Speaks a Thousand Words.........

Moving Forward

It seemed each time Mama and babies came by, there was one fewer duckling. They would come by have a bite and move on. Some days were luckier than others...

the count would be the same.