We quickly became friends, and I soon talked my dad into letting me have a pekin duck, so Nick bought me a pekin duck from a place called Conways in Indiana, and 2 more for him. I took her home to her cage and let her eat, then we went out into the yard. She followed me like a shadow, and never left my side.
I became very attached. She soon bonded with my sheltie (Shetland Sheepdog or Miniature Collie) Riley more than me, but I loved her just the same. We would occasionally go out on walks, Riley would follow me, and Sisqo would follow Riley. She liked Riley a lot, he was about her size. When we walked, everyone turned their head to see a Dog, a Duck, and a Teenager walking down the street. We got some pretty funny looks from people's faces.
To make a long story short, from that point until she was about 1 month old, Riley and Sisqo were best pals, Sisqo still liked me, but not nearly to the extend she liked Riley. One day however, Nick invited me to go to his Uncle Joe's house, where they have golf carts and stuff to ride in. We put all our ducks (4 pekins, 1 being Sisqo, and my 2 brand new Cayugas) in the chicken wire cage. I had fun with Nick until about 10:30, when we drove home. It was totally silent in the car, something was bugging me, something went wrong. I just had this weird, eerie feeling.
When we got home, I helped bring stuff inside, then I went back to the backyard to check on the ducks. I was taken by surprise to see that my duck, out of all the 4 pekins, was gone. I assumed she escaped. There was a slight opening in the cage where we apparently didn't shut all the way, it was now a rainy, cold night, and there were no duck tracks coming out of the cage. I looked for her with Riley for 3 hours, until it was almost 2:00 in the morning. Riley was acting sad, he would just lay down and not get up. He didn't want to go very far into the surrounding woods. It was very dark and my flashlight finally died. I headed for home. I prayed that she would be back with the others in the cage the next day.
The next morning, I woke up, took a shower, and sped down the street on my bike to see if Sisqo had returned. When I arrived, I was devastated to find that now Quackers was missing! and there was no opening in the cage. Riley soon burst ahead of me into the forest, his nose was working like none other, until we came upon a big pile of white feathers, down, and blood. That was what was left of Quackers. I knew this was Quackers because none of the other ducks had any feathers yet. But where was my duck?
Riley soon found a trail of blood and feathers, we followed it, only to reveal that Quackers put up a good fight. The feathers slowly disappeared, signaling that Quackers was indeed dead. We went back to the cage, and Nick's mom was outside, and said that Nick and his brother were crying, Riley then ran over to the cage and looked for Sisqo again, no luck, then we all looked down. COYOTE TRACKS. This was the work of a single coyote, if it was more than one or two coyotes, they would've stolen all of the ducks.
Riley then put his tail down, and sat next to the cage and slept for the rest of the afternoon, as if he knew what happened. And no, it wasn't Riley who stole Sisqo, that's insane, besides he was inside all night and we have no doggy door. And on top of that, Sisqo was just slightly taller than Riley. I mourn the loss of Sisqo, but just think of Riley, he was pretty down, I never knew dogs had what I thought were human feelings. The four remaining looked for Quackers and Sisqo for the rest of the afternoon. Sisqo never did show up, she must have been a victim of the coyote as well.
There's good news in this story, as the other 4 ducks are living healthy and happy in our neighborhood pond. They are accompanied by 3 smaller Pekins, and 2 Khaki Campbells, who we rescued from a lady who no longer wanted them. Next year we plan on getting 12 more ducks from Metzer Farms to start a duck pond. We are well up to the commitment, and are looking forward to it greatly. I hope that you all learn from this story, and never leave ducks unattended in a cage without a roof.