An odd little moment

I bought my first two runner ducks a few years ago now. and kept the gentle, nervous females, who have mothered all of my many ducklings over the last few seasons.

I named them Nell and Maude, and I suspect both were older ducks when I bought them. Yesterday Nell looked tired and wobbly on her legs, and without the usual hysterical screaming that Indian runners exhibit when they come into close human contact, I caught her and placed her in the quiet duckhouse with food and some water.

Today the old girl remained ill , so I placed her back into the duck house and got on with chores before I needed to leave in order to take one of our elderly neighbours to hospital. When I returned I took the goslings out on to the field for a walk and sat down with them with a bowl of water for them and a cup of coffee for me.

As we sat there in the sun, Nell tottered out of the duckhouse and walked very slowly over to us.

She drank briefly from the goslings bowl as they craned their necks and twittered at her and not six inches away from us, she sat down in the warm sun where she lowered her head into the grass.

I thought to myself that she was dying and very gently I picked her up and let her lie in the crook of my arm where she sat still and very calm.

There was something small but incredibly moving about the whole little scene, and moments later Nell's breathing slowed and then eventually stopped.

It was the oddest thing

Nell,Racism and Red Valerian

Poor Nell has been suffering the over romantic attentions (!!) of Walter and Harold over the last few weeks and now has a nasty sore on the back of her head (that is the area drakes "hold" their females when mating)as well as a clear infection in her left eye. So I caught her this morning and took her to the vets to get some treatment.
Now ducks are like hens for they remain still and calm if you hold them firmly, so I wrapped Nell up in a baby blue hand towel and sat her on my knee in the vet's waiting room. The waiting room filled up fairly quickly as only one vet was on duty, and by 10 am there was seven people in there with cat baskets on their knees, an elderly man with a collie and me with Nell sat stock still in her towel.
One woman opposite from me asked which vet was working and another women told her the "foreign" vet was holding clinic. Regular readers to this blog may remember that I have always been amused by the Polish vet tendency to yell when taking a history, so I was terribly shocked to hear a rather personal tirade of racist comments from the first women against this vet.
With eight perfect strangers listening, she admitted that she didn't like these "crappy foreign vets" who give poor care and couldn't be understood by anyone.Rather proudly she added that she would never see anyone but the lovely "English" senior partner . The waiting room was silent at this speech (but I did notice the second woman nodding) and I sat there speechless at this blatant nasty behaviour.
I couldn't quite believe that someone could be so open in their racist comments and had to say SOMETHING in view of the silence in the room .As coldly as I could I said loudly "The "foreign" vet is actually Polish and is a VERY competent professional She deals with all my animals and has done so wonderfully for two years".
Now the moral high ground I felt I had, was somewhat diluted by the fact I had a bald duck on my knee wrapped in a baby blue bath towel, but I hope this woman felt a tiny bit ashamed by her words. I guess that sort of creature does not take challenging too well( she just shrugged at my words), but at least the other people in the waiting room may have felt a bit embarrassed by their own silent complicity.
Anyhow Nell was treated by the senior "English" partner who had come back on duty (pity) and she had cream anointed on her head and some I M antibiotics.I have to bathe her head and eye daily with cold tea ( a first for me) which will be fun, and I put her back into her run with Maude after removing Walter and Harold.
The drakes literally went hysterical at being separated from the females and have constantly broken out of the hens enclosure to get back with their girls. After the fifth escape I left them all together again,I will wait and see if Nell's injuries improve.

Caught up with garden clearing this afternoon. The red valerian in the lane looks wonderfull, Thia weed covers all the walls in the village.