The day Popeye popped into our lives. It was a cold spring morning. His parents, Daphne & Mr. Black, had nested on our back deck, in our herb pot (so much for my gourmet cooking attempts). Nine of the eleven eggs hatched. Our boy must have been the ninth because when everyone hit the water, he started to sink. The neighbors were watching with great curiosity and were there to rescue him on the spot. Elisa called me at work that night a bit frantic: “there is a baby duck all by itself and I don’t know what to do…it’s on the kitchen counter in a cardboard box…I don’t know what to do”. Thanks to the power of the internet, she figured out just what to feed him and how to care for him. I came home that night to find the new addition to our family sound asleep on her chest and Elisa sleeping too.

For the next two months we feed, walked and swam our new duck. We protected him from his parents and the second batch of siblings (the first batch was part of the food chain within the first four days of their birth – muskrats, crows, seagulls, eagles…everything was trying to feed their own babies). Popeye left our “nest” but came back a couple of weeks later with a swollen hip joint. He spent two to three weeks at PAWS Wildlife Refuge spa and then returned to be released in his home neighborhood.

He now lives on our dock with Daphne & Mr. Black. We are curious to see if he will mate and if there will be a territory war when that time comes. In the meantime we and the other dock residents keep an eye on him, give him some food and enjoy his wiggle waddle down the dock to visit.