Not long after moving to Solvang from Ventura County, I discovered the village pet store on Copenhagen drive, the main street. Being a great lover of animals, I spent many afternoons in there. In fact, I was there so much that the owners (a female couple) asked me if I wanted to help them take care of the animals. Of course, I jumped at the chance.When the Easter season rolled around, a shipment of yellow ducklings arrived and I was given one. I took it home, along with some food they also gave me, and kept it with me whenever I wasn't in school. I never did give her a name. She was just "My Duck"...
In those days, oval fuzzy rugs were in style and my mom had gotten one to lay beside my bed. My duck made this her nesting place at night, preferring to sleep inside with me than to be left outside with the dogs. In fact, if she was put outside at night, she would waddle round and round the house raising such a ruckus that the neighbors complained.
In the summer, she shared my wading pool and followed me wherever I went. I finally bought her a pink cat leash and began taking her down the hill and into the village, where all of the shop owners welcomed us inside. We were local celebrities, but I didn't realize it then. I can't tell you how many home movies we must be in, as well as posed pictures. Who knows how many unposed photos there are?
In time, we moved to a house on a ranch about a mile-and-a-half out of town. The skies of the Santa Ynez Valley are always full of chicken hawks and my parents were afraid for her safety, so they talked me into giving her to a family who had a duck pond on their ranch. Full of sadness, I acquiesced and kissed my duck goodbye.
One of the kids in that family was a friend of my brother. One evening at dinner, my insensitive sibling blurted out that my duck would not stay with the ducks at the pond, but would constantly walk up to the house, where she called out for human companionship. He then added that one night she'd died of grief on the front porch.
Not a happy story, granted, but an important part of my personal history.
