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4th August, 2008 - The Jackson Five Become The Fab Four Having discovered the whereabouts of the ducks and giving them plenty of opportunity to come home on their own, it was now time to take decisive action.
So, armed with a crate, a special crook for catching poultry (a bit like a shepards crook, but smaller) and a small bucket of food Dan and our neighbour Alain went to round the feathered 5 up.
While confidently marching up to the ducks, Dan noticed that one was sitting apart from the other 4. Thinking nothing of it, Dan continued to the 4 who were obviously rather concerned that their bid for freedom was coming to an end.
In the field where the ducks were staying is a small pond - no more than 20 feet in diameter. But it is waist deep and the bottom 18 inches is just thick sludge.
Ducks may look stupid, but in fact, they are rather cunning. Figuring out that Dan hasn't got webbed feet, the 4 ducks jumped into the pond and just floated in the middle - irrespective of how much food Dan put out for them.
Not one to give up quickly, Dan decided that the only course of action would be to catch the solitary duck, put him in the crate and then the others would come up and rescue their friend.
Well, things did not quite turn out like that. Dan caught the solitary duck easily enough - mainly due to the fact that it was injured - and put him in the crate next to the pond.
Rather than the 4 ducks coming to their friends rescue, it transpired that the crated duck was calling out "it's a trap!" to his friends. As a result, the 4 ducks just sat in the middle of the pond.
Left with no option, Dan waded into the pond in an attempt to chase the ducks onto dry land, where Alain would be able to catch them.
However, as soon as Dan stepped into the pond, he was knee deep in decomposed pond crud and had great difficulty moving. The ducks - who, through years of evolution, have mastered the art of floating and swimming - simply swam to the other side of the pond.
Whenever Dan waddled across to them, the simply swam the other way. The ducks had absolutely no intention of getting out of the water.
Eventually, Dan gave up and vowed to return later on when the ducks were no where near the pond.
When Dan got out of the pond, he noticed that the injured duck in the crate was badly hurt and that there were live maggots crawling under the skin and around the wound.
Apart from the injury, the duck looked quite sick and poorly. The injury was too bad for it to be treated and so it was put out of it's misery - r.i.p View The Blog Read All Duck Stories |
