The Adventures of Harriet the Duck

If you've never had your ducks in a row, as the saying goes, you'll appreciate this story. We had some excitement in our neighborhood when it seemed a bald eagle had descended on Election Day. How patriotic, right?

Upon closer inspection though, it was actually a duck. Not a goose on the loose. But a duck.

One neighbor and I got pretty close to it yesterday afternoon and he said it was a domestic duck. As in someone's pet? Yep.  So I snapped a photo (of course) and showed it the farm lady around the bend. Without hesitation she said, "That's a Muscovy duck! But she's not ours." 

She? I don't know how you can tell the difference and I probably don't want to know. So I shared the picture on Facebook in case any neighbors knew her or her owners. No luck.

I kind of forgot about her because I didn't see her on my noon walk today. But sure enough, this afternoon she was sitting in our front yard. After she had flown (witnesses say) from our back yard to the dog yard next door, then over to our non-dog yard. (Even though I learned later she lives with dogs.)

She let me get close enough take pictures of her and her beautiful feathers. This time I posted the picture on the "nosy site" on Facebook – as in the Wood County scanner followers page. Didn't even know if it was the right forum but I've seen people share "lost dog" photos on there so why not a "lost duck"?

It worked! In about half an hour's time, more than 60 people had shared it out and the owners saw it and contacted me.

Turns out a fox surprised Harriet (best duck name ever) and her duck sister on Monday. Sadly, the fox got the other girl, but Harriet escaped through the woods and headed west. She bypassed Little Red Ridinghood's Grandmother's house and skirted around Hansel and Gretl's candy cottage to get to our yard on the other side of the woods. But she made it. And made the rounds waddling around our subdivision for almost 3 days.

Thankfully she perched on the next-door neighbor's deck after the sun when down so when the owners got here, they could find her and get her. They were ecstatic. She was happy to see them, too, and get her treats! Yes, just like any other pet. 

Her owners had happy tears. They said it was sad to lose the other duck and think they lost Harriet, too. So relieved! And they said Harriet's man at home was extremely distraught. Good thing Harriet was heading back. I've since learned Muscovy ducks don't mate for life so who knows who long he would have waited until he moved on?! Men!

Thanks for sharing your adventure with us, Harriet! Pretty cool that in less than 50 minutes, we went from social media post to happy reunion. Who couldn't use a happy-ending fairy tale like that this week?