Wednesday 15 July 2009

Ugly Duck

He's not ugly yet, but bound to be - he/she is a Moscovy, destined to make gourmet meals of my slug invasion. Right now it's wandering around the shed laying little grey slugs of poo that Caleb, keen to keep his new best friend in good favour, is quick to mop up.

Whenever Cal goes for a walk it's waddling behind him or laying out on his forearm and watching the world from it's elevated perch.

Nuju, a bird dog, does nothing but salivate over it, he trembles with the exertion of controlling his desire to lunge and lunch. He has to endure watching the imposter eat his food from his own food bowl. The duck has no sense of self-preservation and lives up to it's name, 'nibbler', and nibbles on everything including the fur between Nuju's toes.

Trev's jokes revolving around various duck recipes have diminished, he's become quite fond of it - but it is soon to join the ranks of animals that dwell in the outside world as the unsweet smell of duck poo is getting to us all.

Photo to come. Figured I better get a few posts up and happening, because lots has been happening, except posts.

1 comment:

Denise said...

Muscovies are very personable and socialable so I have learnt to keep the door shut. I like the sounds they make which is a variety of 'weep weep' noises along with other sounds. Last week some tradesman came around and all the men were standing around in a circle with their arms folded, so Fred our big male muscovy took his place in the circle and made his own noises. They are messy though and clumsy with their big feet so tend to squash the young plants. They will also nibble plants they are not meant to or tread on them so plants still need to be guarded. Every animal we have still manages to get into things they shouldn't but that is part of it all and we get by with their foibles and they learn ours. You are never without company when you go outside and even the native animals and birds get closer to the house now as we are now more familiar which also means having to net off favourite plants close to the house. Possums are without rules so it is a lot of give and take out here. We usually get what's left! Have fun with your muscovy.