Thursday, June 11, 2009

Not about my trip, about a duck

I am taking way too long to recount my trip since it's a month past. Other things are happening.

Today I saw a duck slaying. That's right, I witnessed a murder. I was at the Fairmont Park in Sugarhouse, just walking around. All of a sudden I saw like 50 ducks and geese all running for the pond. The ducklings where so cute. Then I saw they were running cause there was a dog at the edge of the pond.

Sadly, I realized he had a duck shaking in his mouth. His owner pulled him off and left the park. I headed over to see if it was ok. I was determined to nurse it back to health if I could. I decided to call him Ned. I used to bring injured birds home when I was a kid. I have some weird impulse to save animals. When I got to Ned, he had already expired.

I didn't cry or anything, but I felt so sad. I was really sad about it. Normally I'm not the biggest defender of birds, but I kid you not, maybe 10 minutes had passed since I was thinking how grateful I was God created ducks, cause they were making me so happy to watch them. Mostly the wee little ones.


Drawing in honor of Ned

I went into the pool and talked to the desk attendant. I didn't know if there was someone who should be notified that there was a dead duck out there or whatever. The desk guy said that it's actually illegal to let your dogs run off leash and it should be reported if they attack other animals. Seriously, who lets a rottweiler run around a park on it's own?

He gave me the number for animal control and I called them. I felt kind of like a busy body reporting it. Maybe it's just easier to do nothing. Plus I really like dogs, but I didn't feel like I was doing the dog or the thing/person the dog bites a favor. What's it going go for next? Puppies? Babies? Me? Won't anyone think of the children!!! (Simpson's quote, if you didn't catch the humor there.)

I really feel like pet owners need to be responsible for their pets. Animals are going to do what animals do. Pet owners need to guard their pets from their own nature sometimes. I think the owner was homeless though. He was pretty dirty and had a big backpack on. Not that that's an excuse.

I'm now best friends with the animal control lady. Not really, but we chatted for awhile. She went and picked up Ned while we were talking, and disposed of him properly anyhow. Gah. I'm alone most of the day not working and all, and if someone wants to chat, I am so there. I feel like I'll explode some days if I don't talk to someone. The blogging seems to take some pressure off me too. I digress.

A moment of silence for Ned the duck. Was he a good duck? A good father? What did he want in life? Now we'll never know. Fair thee well, Ned.

2 comments:

Anna said...

Rest in peace Ned. *bows head*

Sara Jensen said...

So sad! I am happy that you were there for him so that he wasn't devoured by some other animal or worse... Come visit us soon!