A week later...almost.

Today is Friday the 9th of April, and it has been very near a week since Sally's death. The first day was hard on Conner and I, but being a human I was able to move forward rather quickly. After all, life is life and death is its finality, right? Conner, however, has not had this luxury. He lost his life long companion, and since the life of a duck is significantly shorter than a human, I can only assume his loss was akin to that of losing a 10 or 15 year partner. Knowing this I paid a much greater amount of time with him. Well, Freya and I, did. (For those who aren't in the know, Freya is my 3 month old Chocolate Lab. [ Yes, yes, a lab, I know, hunting dogs and all that jazz, but I assure you things are kosher on her end]).

During this week, this mourning period Conner walked aimlessly around in search of his passed partner. He quacked quietly and infrequently. He spent a greater amount of his time at her grave. The mind and actions of animals fascinates me. This week I have seen a duck exhibit sorrow, and I have seen a dog, who is like a giant pesky little sister to Conner act cautiously, and sympathetically. She never once attempted to start their daily game of chase. She never sniffed him out and bothered him. She took a discrete, and respectful leave of her senses and gave Conner the proper mourning period.

It wasn't until two days ago that Conner started exhibiting familiar actions; pursuing a noisy latch on the back door, quacking and then coming to anyone exiting the door, chasing, and bothering Freya as she sniffed for a place to use the bathroom. These events have given me hope that Conner isn't just going to sit idly by and waste away in grief. No, rather, my boy, is going to do his best to pull through.

I say all this and I add a new section. Tomorrow I am going to a local flea market to see if I can find a Rouen female for Conner to "shack up" with. Whether or not this will be a good idea is yet to be seen, but I can't just leave him alone for the rest of his feathered days, that's for sure.

Onto other news, Ms. Aslinger has contacted a fine farm about getting the new batch of eggs this year. I am excited because we will be hatching more ducks, and our new coworker, and godsend, Ms. Shannon will be taking this years batch home with her, save one.

Save one you ask? I will be taking one with me. I can't help it, I must bring one of these new ducks home. They are called Cayuga ducks and their color is absolutely gorgeous. They have the magnificent coloring of a mallard head all over their body! It is an oily emerald color shimmering and bluish green. It would be the perfect addition to Conner. Hopefully.

This also marks the time of the year where we being the incubation period and since the blog i established pre-hatching I will be chronicling all events from the time we receive the eggs until they hatch, and are in the caring hands of Shannon.

For now I must postulate and get my lazy bones back to work! (Just kidding the kids are napping.)