What Happened To Little Straggler?

Yesterday I wrote about a little duckling, Little Straggler, who got left behind in our church courtyard when his mama and the rest of her newly hatched flock left the area.

We ended up catching Little Straggler and putting him in a box in my office because he was crying, non-stop, and we were concerned that a hawk or a cat or some other animal would get him because of all the noise he was making.  In fact, a cat rang the buzzer at the front door of the church and tried to fool me by wearing a suit and sunglasses.  But I knew better and didn’t let him in.

We debated what we were going to do with Little Straggler.  Several people left comments suggesting that I was, now, his mother.  One person even told me that as Little Straggler’s mother, I needed to chew up worms to feed him.  But we have to draw some lines, somewhere, don’t we?  The little guy is cute but, come on!

Well, fortunately, Ann from our church came and took Little Straggler to a nearby farm where he was put in an incubator (I think that’s what Ann told me) with several other newly hatched ducklings.  Maybe it wasn’t an incubator.  I can’t remember for sure.  I think that’s what she told me.  Are there incubator’s for ducklings?  If there aren’t, there should be, doggone it!

Ann said that the other little ducklings seemed to immediately accept Little Straggler into their duck society.  So, Little Straggler is fine.  He’s living on a farm.  Someone else is chewing up worms for him to eat.  And a very sad ending was averted.

Although there are some cats and hawks in our neighborhood roaming around today saying, “Thanks a lot, Mr. Nature Boy!  What about us?  We’re still really hungry.”