Pender Island woman helps lonely duck find a friend
Like the Three Stooges worked for laughs on screen, and the Three Musketeers fought for justice in France, these three ducks were born to eat slugs on a farm.
“One was Lily, one was Poppy,” Jason Croutch says, showing me video of the black birds growing from fuzzy babies to feathered farmhands. “The other was Delphine Duck.”
The botanical names were bestowed on the trio by Jason’s customers at the Fraser Valley Rose Farm.
“It’s just a lot of fun to have them here,” Jason smiles.
When the threesome wasn’t devouring pests, or greeting guests, the ducks were bonding with Jason’s family.
Until the day his wife heard a coyote in the yard.
“It was traumatic,” Jason says. “Lisa had to run out and chase the coyote off.”
She made it in time to save one of the ducks.
Because they all looked the same, they were unsure if it was Lily, Poppy, or Delphine. But the duck that remained was definitely now "Lonely."
“She really couldn’t go about her day unless she was with people,” Jason says.
Lonely followed Lisa everywhere. Jason captured video of the black duck walking beside his wife’s yellow boots all over the farm.
But whenever she’d have to go where the duck couldn’t, Lonely would waddle hundreds of metres away to visit their neighbour, before the neighbour would inevitably walk the duck back home.
“There’d be a knock,” Jason says showing me video of Lonely waiting on their front stoop. “And here I find a duck [at] our front door.”
Despite their best intentions, which they posted about on their Fraser Valley Rose Farm YouTube channel, Jason and Lisa realized they just couldn’t be the sort of BFFs the bird needed. So they reached out to their niece, Stefanny Lowey.
“My heart just broke when I heard what happened to her,” Stefanny says.
Stefanny is a self-described “bird lover” who raises animals and grows food on Pender Island as part of her and her partner’s Lovin off the Land project.
She agreed to adopt the duck, which required a ferry ride to her property in a dog carrier.
“Everyone was really confused when they heard quacking coming from the crate and not a dog bark,” Stefanny laughs.
When the duck arrived at her new home, she was introduced to a flock of potential new friends. But Lonely stayed close to Stefanny, earning the new name Shadow.
“It’s been really amazing,” Stefanny says. “But a different experience than our other birds.”
The other birds never waddled down the driveway, whenever Stefanny was working inside.
But then again the other birds never experienced loss like Lonely did, which is perhaps why they also found it so easy to welcome Shadow into their family.
“[Shadow] has now made really good friends with our white duck,” Stefanny smiles, showing me video of the inseparable pair. “They like to hang out together.”
After three became one, the lonely duck is finding a new beginning as party of a dynamic duo.
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