For the past 4 years, or so, a mommy duck comes and lays her eggs and hatches her ducklings out in our church courtyard. People have asked me why she has selected that area and I think the answer is obvious, isn’t it? The mommy duck is concerned that her little ones get good Christian training early in life. We’ve seen them out there having a Bible study a couple of times. And just a few days ago, they were singing worship songs right around dusk. It brought a tear to the eye.
This year, when the ducklings hatched, the mommy duck took off after just a few days and we never did see her again. And people have felt bad about that, but it worked out just fine for the ducklings. Oh yeah, believe me, this was a good deal for the ducklings because they have Ann.
Ann Heroldt takes care of our church courtyard and Ann adopted the ducklings and took care of them over the past few weeks. She would come early every morning and check in on them. She would put clean water in their little swimming ponds. She brought seed over here for them to eat. She would tuck them in at night and read them bedtime stories and change their little duck diapers.
But Ann knew that she had to get the ducks to some place where they could learn to be on their own in the wild because she could raise them, sure, but do you know what it costs to put 9 ducks through college? It’s just too much.
So, on Friday morning this past week. Ann recruited the help of Kim from our church.
Kim used to raise ducks and every Friday night she does that thing where they catch rattlesnakes and milk the venom out of them—Kim knows the animal kingdom—so Ann knew that with Kim’s help they could do it. They could round up all the ducks and capture them and milk the venom out of them and get them to a farm that Ann had arranged to take them.
Well Friday morning, there they were catching those ducks.
Through an elaborate system of cardboard barriers ….
…and lids off of giant plastic containers and a couple of boxes and a big net, and some tunnels and trap doors…and a very small amount of tear gas, Ann and Kim caught all nine of the little ducklings.
Five of them were placed in this cardboard box.
And four of them were placed in this pet cat carrier.
(They really should have removed the cat, first. That was a case of very unfortunate planning.)
And they all took a ride in the back of Ann’s car to the nice children’s farm where they will be cared for and when they are old enough, they will have a lovely pond that they can call their home. A pond where the other critters have a nightly prayer meeting. And there’s a grey haired pastor duck who gets confused about the facts when he’s telling stories.
So nice job, Ann and Kim…or as we like to call them: The Duck Wranglers
By the way, BP has contacted Ann and Kim and asked for their help with a problem they’re having out in the gulf. They need a couple of people who can figure out how to get a
job done.
P.S. Those little ducks were really scared when Ann and Kim were catching them. They didn’t know, they thought someone was trying to hurt them. And now they’re in a new place and I imagine that they might be thinking, “Where’s Ann?” She was their caretaker, their rock, their anchor point. Poor little ducklings.
P.P.S. We got a call at the church this morning and it was a strange quacking noise, but, listening carefully, it sounded a little bit like someone was saying: “Where’s Ann?”
P.P.P.S. Don’t worry, Ann’s going to go to the farm and visit the ducks.
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