Well, when covid hit and the kids didn’t go back to school that last semester in Guilin, we decided we could get ducks. This totally occupied their every waking second and was wonderful for them to be outside caring for little creatures. We started with three (one each right?). Then, the trend caught on and some neighbors bought baby ducks for their kids, but soon decided ducks weren’t suitable pets for high level apartment living and gave them to us. We live on the first floor, so we had a small yard. Our duck total was now five.

The kids would catch fish from the pond in our apartment complex and feed them. Then, when the ducks were big enough they would “walk” them to the pond and let them swim a bit. They also had to be put safely away at night because the predators were real – we lost baby ducks years before to big rats. The ducks were so smart too!! When the kids let them out in the morning they would go straight to the pond – they had learned that route quickly. They also followed the kids around. Really cute.

They were super fun and the hype of the neighborhood. . . until they got big and took over the pond and the management office said they had to go. So, we gave them to our art teacher who lived in the village next to the river. She already had chickens and geese and was happy to provide them a new home where we could still see them each week when we went to art class.