Introducing….Jake. And Brenda.

Alright folks, we have done what I swore we were not ready to do…we have pets...ducks. Well, they are more like quasi - pets. Technically, they are not our ducks but they come close. They are a boy and a girl who wander our street and have come to love our house. You may wonder where they got their names. Apparently the ducks started visiting our street a few months ago and the neighborhood kids decided they needed names. Like any normal kids would have, they chose the names Jake and Brenda. Pretty cute, huh?

I looked up the definition of pet and here is what I found:

Pet: noun.
1.An animal kept for amusement or companionship.

While we don’t keep these two in our house, they do serve as companions and we even feed them everyday. So in my mind, they are pets. Let me tell you how we got to know Jake and Brenda. One evening Pearce, Jimmy and I were in the backyard and I decided to go grab the mail. When I rounded the corner from my back gate I saw two little tail-feathers wiggling along our driveway. And they were precious! I ran inside, grabbed some bread and called for Jimmy and Pearce to come look. We probably spent 30 minutes that first night just oohing and ahhhing over these two.

Everyday in early evening we look out our front door to see two little ducks waddling up our driveway. There is something sort of enchanting about having ducks in your driveway. I love the way we can count on them to come over each night, sort of like an old neighbor coming over for dessert and conversation. In fact, last night I left the front door open to run inside and grab the bread. When I came back out I saw Jake on our front porch, with Brenda, headed toward the inside of our house. I think they might just move in if we let them! So this is how we have been spending our evenings lately. We sit outside and wait for Jake and Brenda to come for dinner. Pearce gets so excited as they cross the street and make their way toward our lawn. He squeals with delight and says, “Hi Ducks! Hi Ducks!” He is so precious.

And when I say we feed them “bread”, I mean the good stuff. They don’t eat Wonder Bread...they get multigrain flatbread and they LOVE us for it. I am actually glad these are our first “pets” because Pearce still isn’t quite sure about the whole feeding them process. For example, Pearce will take an entire piece of bread to feed them and either throw it whole or tear it up and toss the pieces, only to walk around and eat the torn up pieces off the pavement himself. I am not kidding. Last night Jimmy and I tried (unsuccessfully) to explain the process to Pearce. He simply looked at us, then down at his bread, and said, “No, No.” as he munched away at the pavement pieces. Oh dear. Can you imagine if this were Kibbles and Bits dog food? Pearce would think it was the greatest new cereal in town!

On another note, sweet Pearce got his first skinned up knee this past week. He was running (as usual) to the car and slid on the pavement. He handled it like such a champ that I didn't even know it was bleeding until we got home. Of course I had to take pictures and he was so brave while I doctored him up! I think the presence of Elmo must have helped...