Brisbane Valley Cat Rescue

A friend of mine was overrun with ducklings a few years ago and so I agreed to take about 16 (what was I thinking) 2 week olds off her hands.  I carried them home in a box and spent most of the walk wondering where in the world I was going to put them.  Did I have anything in the storeroom that they would eat?.  I decided to put them in the big enclosure that I bought to contain Lexie when he smashed his hip and was recovering from the operation.

Naturally Jena (the border collie) and all 4 cats just had to spend most of their time from then on playing near, climbing over and sleeping beside the new baby arrivals.  After all what's the use of having new babies around if you can't play with them all the time.

Finally the day arrived when the babies had outgrown the enclosure and if I didn't move them I'd end up with wall to wall squished ducklings.  The enclosure was big and ungainly to try and move and I was in no shape to be bending down and crawling around trying to catch them so with trepidation aplenty (how do you heard 16 half grown ducklings in any one direction to get them into another larger run) I decided the only thing to do was to let them out and hope I could shuffle them off in the right direction.  I opened the cage door and out they came.  Not waiting to see what happened I raced off to open up the area where I wanted to take them.  I know any normal person would have done this first, but no-one ever said I was normal.  OK shush.  Anyway I opened the gate and turned around to retrace my steps and almost fell headlong over the ducklings.  The whole lot had followed me.  I took a few steps backwards hardly prepared to breath and in they walked.  I couldn't believe it.  Anyway after that I always let them out each day in the afternoon so they could run around and pick grass and catch bugs.

Then came the day I decided to visit my neighbour in the afternoon.  I set off like any normal person would (shush you're all chuckling again - I can hear it) and after I got about half way I heard a rustling behind me and thought Jena had decided to follow.  I turned around to send her home (my neighbour has a dog that doesn't like other canines on his property) and was shocked to discover Jena, followed by 3 cats, followed by 16 ducklings all in a row, followed by another cat.  I stood there for a second feeling like the pied piper and then decided to leave the visit for another day.  I headed home and the little convoy followed me.  From that day to this I have to sneak out if I want to go visit on foot.  I've even been known to drive my car across my paddock to the adjoining gate just to throw my little mates off the scent.

Louise at January 26, 2009 at 2:47 AM

A friend of mine was overrun with ducklings a few years ago and so I agreed to take about 16 (what was I thinking) 2 week olds off her hands.  I carried them home in a box and spent most of the walk wondering where in the world I was going to put them.  Did I have anything in the storeroom that they would eat?.  I decided to put them in the big enclosure that I bought to contain Lexie when he smashed his hip and was recovering from the operation.

Naturally Jena (the border collie) and all 4 cats just had to spend most of their time from then on playing near, climbing over and sleeping beside the new baby arrivals.  After all what's the use of having new babies around if you can't play with them all the time.

Finally the day arrived when the babies had outgrown the enclosure and if I didn't move them I'd end up with wall to wall squished ducklings.  The enclosure was big and ungainly to try and move and I was in no shape to be bending down and crawling around trying to catch them so with trepidation aplenty (how do you heard 16 half grown ducklings in any one direction to get them into another larger run) I decided the only thing to do was to let them out and hope I could shuffle them off in the right direction.  I opened the cage door and out they came.  Not waiting to see what happened I raced off to open up the area where I wanted to take them.  I know any normal person would have done this first, but no-one ever said I was normal.  OK shush.  Anyway I opened the gate and turned around to retrace my steps and almost fell headlong over the ducklings.  The whole lot had followed me.  I took a few steps backwards hardly prepared to breath and in they walked.  I couldn't believe it.  Anyway after that I always let them out each day in the afternoon so they could run around and pick grass and catch bugs.

Then came the day I decided to visit my neighbour in the afternoon.  I set off like any normal person would (shush you're all chuckling again - I can hear it) and after I got about half way I heard a rustling behind me and thought Jena had decided to follow.  I turned around to send her home (my neighbour has a dog that doesn't like other canines on his property) and was shocked to discover Jena, followed by 3 cats, followed by 16 ducklings all in a row, followed by another cat.  I stood there for a second feeling like the pied piper and then decided to leave the visit for another day.  I headed home and the little convoy followed me.  From that day to this I have to sneak out if I want to go visit on foot.  I've even been known to drive my car across my paddock to the adjoining gate just to throw my little mates off the scent.

Would have loved to have seen this Lou. I haven't been on the computer as much lately so have a lot of your news to catch up on.

I've been so darn busy myself that I haven't had a lot of time to update everything.  Did you see that Smudge and Lynx both found new homes?  I was so happy for them both.  Being older, it is harder for them to be rehomed, which is silly, because you know exactly what you're getting with them.

Great news to see adoptions have picked up-hope to get out to see you before chrissie. Shall arrange a time closer to then.