Do you remember the children's book called "Make Way for Ducklings"? I read it to my kids and they loved it (or at least I loved it). Well here is the real life version. It was late and I was out turning off the rabbit barn lights, when I realized the dog was fascinated by something in the swimming pool. I could see a brown object floating and thought it was just a bunch of leaves but then I realized it was moving "purposefully". Here is what I saw:
Can you make it out? A mother duck and 10 ducklings were swimming happily at 9 pm in my backyard "pond"! The ducklings were so small they couldn't fly yet, but were great swimmers.
The next morning they were still in the pool. The mother occasioally got out of the water, and at first the babies were too small to jump up over the edge. Eventually they all figured out how to get out of the water. This led to a near disaster when our Persian cat, Elmo, decided to be a "hunter" and chased the ducks. Mama feigned a broken wing to distract him, and the babies took off. Unfortunately, some babies headed under a gate, some fell into a drain, while others hid under a bush. Human intervention (ie Green family to the rescue) brought all babies back and fought of the "killer cat" (who can't actually even kill a flea) and the duck family was reunited.
The next day, Mama and kids all disappeared as quickly as they arrived!
