Duck!!

Due to the endless rain of the last few days the overflow from our little duck pond has started to wash away. This is quite an achievement as we've never managed to keep water in the duck pond at all before, let alone too much water. Jelly the tortoiseshell cat is an expert in assessing warm places and, it being black plastic, she had to check it's heat retention qualities. To her amazement, there appeared to be waterfowl present. This has never happened before either.


She spent some time watching the duck and when satisfied that it wasn't going to attack her, she started to stalk it in return. When we bought the decoy from the local Fodder Store, as a bit of a lark - well, duck anyway - we were hoping to attract ducks just to have their company and slug-eating capabilities, we have no plans to shoot any. Ducks, that is. It would be a bit messy shooting slugs. Eventually we will have ducks and geese of our own. Until then our little plastic friend will have to suffice.


We asked the nice Fodder Store Family whether they sold many? Yes, dozens! Really? Didn't know duck hunting was such a sport in the Adelaide Hills. Oh not for duck hunting, they explained, they're for amusing horses.

Horse toys. Right.

Apparently when horses start to play with the ball valves in their troughs, wasting hundreds of litres of precious water, their owners put decoys in the troughs and the horses play with them instead. They find the ducks flung far into the middle of the paddocks and generally tossed about. The decoy duck saves the water and keeps the horses happy for hours.

Ours has a similar effect on our cat.