The Duck Police


So there is this crazy family of ducks in the pond outside of my office building.
(pictured at left)
On Monday, I heard my co-worker Vicki yelling that there were ducks in the middle of our busy parking lot. Sure enough, I looked out my window and saw a mama duck sitting there in the middle of the parking lot with 5 fuzzy ducklings hiding under her skirt of feathers. Vicki was on the phone, so she motioned me to go down and save the ducks. I'm not sure what the crazy duck mama was thinking because there isn't one good thing that could come from leaving her pond and leading her ducklings accross the multiple asphalt parking lots full of people heading out of Fred Meyer, picking up their drycleaning, drinking at Cooper's (the corner pub), or getting the 5 5 5 deal at dominoes next door. Personally, I think she was hungry for some garlic breadsticks. So, I ran downstairs to save the ducks, using my Corban Soccer skills to flank the brood with a bannana run and I managed to shoo them back to their pond. It really was pretty simple because the ducklings freak out whenever anything comes near to them, and the duck mama was just as mad as could be, but also scared and running.
The next day (yesterday), I looked out the window again, and happened to see the duck mama standing on the curb between our parking lot and her pond - which she apparently did not approve of. Vicki and I ran down again to shoo the ducks back to their pond. They had made it to the far side of the parking lot by the time we got there, dodging cars along the way, and we noticed that there were only 3 fuzzy babies today. As we tried to shoo them back, and some old lady decides that this is the best time to leave the parking lot, so she starts driving in their path, and Vicki starts screaming and flailing her arms, "STOP!" And she does, but the stupid ducks (with the mama duckk leading the charge) decide that it is a good idea to runn under the car. This freaks vicki out even more, and she starts counting them as they come out the other side. Once they had all cheep cheeped there frantic way out from under the car, Vicki motioned that it was ok for the old lady to leave, and we continued chasing the ducks back to the pond. This time, instead of running around the hurricane fence, which guards the pond, the tiny chicks just barrelled right through the links, but unfortuately for the stupid mama duck, she couldn't fit through, no matter how hard she tried. Thankfully, the duck remembered that she was given wings for situations like this, and she took off, nearly nailing me in her upward bound struggle. I ducked (pun intended) out of the way, and watched the mama fly back into the pond, and eventually quack her way back to her little cheeplings.

Since this excursion, Vicki and I have been named the duck police, and as Ruben (another co-worker) says: "General Mallard and Major Mandarin celebrate a job well done. The duo has been keeping South Salem area ducks safe for over a day and a half. Congratulations ladies and keep up the good work!"

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