what duck

Some of you have asked "what duck?" mentioned in the 'fluffy babies' post from yesterday.


The Duck was a female Muskovie that laid eggs outside of my apartment door in Ft Lauderdale in February 2005. I think initially there were 5 or 6. She sat on them and sat on them and sat on them, but they didn't hatch. By the end of March, there was no doubt that they were dead. They had changed colors, and we were a bit afraid that they would begin to smell. Each time we walked past her nest, we would say "they're dead!" But she didn't give up.



In June, she was still sitting, only by then there were only 3 left. By September, there were 2. Sometimes, she got up to go eat. And some of those times, a male Muskovie duck would come and stand guard, hissing at anyone who would walk by. Hello? They're dead!


And then, on October 24, came Hurricane Wilma. Sometime during the storm, she laid 8 more eggs - now she was back up to 10, with 2 left over from February. February! She had been sitting on them for 8 months.


When I moved away at the end of January, she was still there sitting on those eggs!


Mrs. Duck - THEY'RE DEAD!!!!!!

heavy petting

Well, let me tell you, the flood gates have opened!


John & I broke through the kitty's skittishness yesterday evening & showed her how wonderful a good old-fashioned scratching can be.



And she LOVED it! Couldn't get enough of it! Kept flopping down and purring and coming back for more!


Such a cutie!

fluffy babies

Isn't she CUTE???



NO - we didn't get a new kitten! But this one has been skulking around our backyard for about a week now. She's very sweet - not so tame that we can pet her [yet], but tame enough that we can go sit near her and she won't run away.


And did I mention that she's cute?


Also cute is Buddy, the newest addition to the Crescent City Gang.


I got to spend Wednesday with him (and the other gang members), and he is just the sweetest poodle :)

Look at that punim!


And then there are the new Virginians. I can't vouch for their sweetness factor, but they are darn cute!


All these sweet babies are making me think about The Duck - I wonder if she's sitting on any babies this spring...

a good friday at silver springs

Yesterday, I spent the day at Silver Springs with my sister Julie and her family. We went on glass bottom boats over the springs and down the river; we took a jeep 'safari' adventure through the woods; we saw bears and alligators and snakes and bats. But the best part of all was...

...feeding the giraffes!!!


There were two giraffes and we got to hand feed them! They were so so so so so cute - and they had lllllooooonnnnnggggg blue tongues that stretched way out to reach the crackers we were holding.

I have never been up close to giraffes before. They were slow-moving and gentle and curious. They also smelled really really bad. According to Chemical and Engineering News, this awful smell may repel insects, including ticks, as well as attracting mates; it is also more pleasant to humans the farther the human is from the giraffe.

But for me, one look in those eyes and I just didn't care about the smell. And neither did my compan-ions.

This is one animal encounter I won't soon forget!

sandpipers & bumper cars

This morning, I took a walk to the beach. It was high tide, so no cars were allowed. And the surf was really rough, so there weren't very many people in the water. But the rough waves were making all this foam, and when they broke on shore, if the wind blew just right, the foam would stay on the sand. It looked like someone had put dish soap in the water.

While walking, I was watching the little kids digging in the sand, and I thought back to when I was a kid and had come to Daytona Beach the first time. I don't remember much - I was only 6 or 7. My aunts had come from Canada, so my family drove up from Fort Lauderdale to see them.

The things I remember most vividly are the sandpipers - little tiny birds that ran so fast it looked almost like a cartoon blur of legs. When I see them now, it always takes me back to that time, except now I'm afraid the little birds will trip or break a leg. Amazing how much more neurotic I get with each passing year.

The other things I remember from that first trip to Daytona Beach are the bumper cars. I can see them in my mind, watching them go around and around and crash into one another, but I can't actually remember riding them. What I do remember is the game that my big sister Diane and I made up about riding them - and crashing into old ladies. I don't know that we ever DID crash into any elderly women, but we had fun pretending!

It is funny how I've come back to this place. The beach here is so much more inviting and calming than in South Florida; and the real & perceived memories from my childhood make it that much more of a comfort. It seemed like a fluke that John and I ended up here, but when I'm walking on the beach, it feels like this is where I'm meant to be.

Now, if only I could sort out that job thing.....