Sadness . . .

Today, both of our ducks are missing. :( Jemima had been missing since yesterday and now Puddleduck is gone too. We have no idea what happened--we're assuming something caught them, but we haven't seen any evidence of an attack, so we just don't know. Maybe sometime they'll just show up on the pond again like nothing had happened . . . but we're not counting on it. We haven't seen them anywhere around. Jim followed the stream waaaay up in the woods this morning but they were nowhere to be found. So, we are a little sad today. Actually, I think Jim and I are sadder than the kids! Josiah doesn't even realize they're gone; Julia was pretty matter-of-fact about it, and Sam was a little sad, but not to the point of tears. Probably it helps that we just don't know for sure what happened.

We had had them for just over a year, and they were more like pets than the chickens are. I hope sometime we can get some more duckies, but we'll have to see . . . we would probably wait until next spring anyway. We will sure miss them if they are indeed gone for good! But, I'm thankful for all the fun they brought into our lives in the past year. I think it will be hard to find another duck with as much personality as Puddleduck had!