Duck

Today marks two full weeks that L has been gone.  She will be home this weekend.  Finally!  She's already prepared me for the fact that she has a tan, despite using sunscreen, so I would be less freaked out when I saw the actual sun damage.  She's had a lot of fun this week and spent time on the canoe, paddle boat, jet ski, and a pontoon, and has been on a turtle and fish finding mission.  Her rats will be happy to see her again, but her hamster, Harley, will be especially happy, because she does not like me very much.

Harley is a singleton right now, because that type of hamster will not share territory with another, and they will violently fight.  I suspect she may be happier though, with another hamster in another cage near her, so they can see and smell one another. I am looking further into this, because it's important that our animals are as happy as they can possibly be.

I've spent a great deal of time trying to win her over, but she does not get comfortable and relaxed when she's out with me like she does with L. She likes me to talk to her and is happy to take the food and treats I give her, but she just doesn't enjoy me handling her.  I won't force myself upon her, but it makes me feel really bad.  Animals (the non-human variety anyway) always love me. It's strange when they don't.

We ended up taking yet another unexpected trip to Madison last night to Four Lakes Wildlife Rehab Center.  We've made that trip many, many times in the last couple of weeks.  Fledgling season and the storms are rough for baby birds. Last night's passenger was a very young duckling--probably mallard, but possibly wood duck.  She still had her egg tooth, which was so adorable.  She was found alone in the road near Rotary Gardens, and there were no other duck families anywhere in the vicinity. Odd.  We had a snuggly car ride, and it was really hard to let her go.  I miss my Jemima duck and was having fantasies of keeping the baby for very selfish reasons.  There were other little ducks there for her to join and another singleton orphan that was being dropped off after our little one.  

One thing that I've learned after over 30 years of working with animals is that despite their species (with very few exceptions), they want to be with others of their own kind more than anything else. They are just like us in that way. I do not believe any social animal (which includes all the animals kept as "pets"), even the most loved, desperately crave understanding from and communication with their own kind and no matter how loved and pampered they are, will never be happy as an "only". It's a universal need.  Having singleton species animals causes me great stress, as it seems really cruel to me, and I do my best to avoid whenever possible.

So the high point of leaving our duck at the clinic was when we left the DCHS grounds.  I love the location and the surrounding prairie there, but it was awesome last night at around 8:30 when we left. There were hundreds of rabbits along the  access drive eating contentedly.  I'm sure many of them were releases from Four Lakes.  We were driving very slowly so we could enjoy watching the buns eat, when we saw a beautiful female deer also eating in a very relaxed manner.  Seeing these animals so happy and peaceful really made my night.  It was very exciting!h b27wwwwwww  ( added by Trixie the rat, who refuses to respect my "No walking on the keyboard" rule.)