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The Ducklings Get Loose | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The shop on Main Street
(Loudon Street) in Winchester, Va. had two big display
windows fronting onto Main. We rotated various pets and
supplies through those windows during the year. Easter
was a big time for pets. We carried bunnies, colored
chickens, and ducklings during that time. My uncle Denny and my Dad built two special cages to fit those windows during the Easter Season. We put the ducklings in one and the beautifully pastel colored chickens in the other. There was large bulk feeders and automatic water dispensers in each and some light bulbs to provide warmth. Back then Virgina was under the Blue Laws which pretty much forbade any commerce on Sundays so on Saturday evening we'd close shop. Check all the animals, feed everything that needed feed through Sunday, give them extra water and make sure everything was locked up. Especially the cages. At least twice every year, sometime in the early morning on Sunday, we'd get a call that the ducks were out and running around the shop. Mom usually couldn't go since my two brothers were too little to take out on those chilly mornings for no good reason. Dad, my sister and I would hop in the car and run down to the shop. Gather up all the loose ducklings and put them back in their display cage. |
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| Ducklings are cute. They also like to follow
their mother or other ducks. If a duck ran from you
several more would follow. When you caught one several
others would follow you back to the cage then run when
you tried to grab them. And the others would follow the
running duck. It took a while to catch them all. And then there was the mess. Ducklings eat a lot. And then they "deposit" droppings where ever they roam. The whole process took over an hour each time. Catching. Penning. And cleaning up. Not pleasant but I still smile when I think of it. |
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| Related Article - Mom's Ducklings | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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