"Scratchin in the Dirt" BY Mavis Mudd...."Raising Young Uns"

 " Around here, I am known as the Queen Mother. Why, I have hatched more chicklet eggs than you could eat in a month.... Oh Drat! Did I really say that? I cringe at the very thought of a hard boiled egg!

     "It is because of my vast experience in mothering that it was assigned to me to warm and cuddle the 5 orphaned duck eggs abandoned by Pittypat- who simply disappeared without a trace!

  "  Some say she'd her fill of sit, sit, sitting on those eggs day after day after day, and decided to follow her dreams- to strike out on her own. Perhaps  to waddle off to Italy and sing opera, or learn to fly a plane (seeing as how her wings don't actually work properly) or maybe become an actress in Masterpiece Theater movies.....

 But I do not believe it for one minute! It is my considered opinion that more nefarious  forces are at work here. Take, for example, the manner in which her nest was left uncovered. Neither a strand of straw nor a blade of grass covering the tender little egglets! And what about the 4 pawed footprints left in the mud leading to and from her nest?? And nary a duck print to be seen! And what of the soft downy feather trail leading into the woods? It doesn't take a Sherlock Holmes to figure this one out. Indeed, it falls to me to report the unspeakable... Pittypat has been kidnapped! 

      "I warned her, 'Don't build your nest neath the arbor where bloody varmints go slinking about in the wee hours and various villains lurk when the moon comes out. 'OH, but I do so love the shade and the scent of Morning Glories above my head', she drawled.  Poor genteel ducks are rather feeble minded, unlike we chicken folk who know best.

    " As you can see, I have MY nest 3 feet off the ground in an old tub tucked safely in the potting shed.

 I fear we shall never again see our dear PittyPat or hear her lovely little Quackity Quack again. Who is the nasty rogue that has perpetrated this dirty deed?

'I didn't do it!! I eat Little Friskies.'

      " I can't help but think of my dearly departed RED ROOSTER-Put in a pot by a desperado!

 It is my intention to pass out a petition to be signed by all the birdfolk in the Hollow, calling for a TRAP to capture the hoodlum of which we speak!!  I am sure the Lord of the Manor will oblige us. Yes, that is just what I will do,  as soon as I get off these eggs! 

    UPDATE!

"

"Well, look here! My new little hatchlings. One wee chick and one wee duckling. I was sittting on 7 eggs and this is ALL I got! Nevertheless, PittyPat would be so proud of this lovely little cotton top.

It is easy to see who daddy is...

And I expect him to live up to his obligations in the future, after I raise this young un to be a proper little worm eater and dirt digger.

   My stars, she is growing like a weed! My little chicklet is growing at the appropriate rate.

  Good grief, she eats TWICE as much as the chicklet, I am all afrazzle scratchin in the dirt for worms!

But the siblings do adore one another.

Of course, I have named her PittyPat after her dear mama. My little chicklet is Gretel.

      "How on earth can I  teach her to be a proper little chicken when all she wants to do is run to the creek and splash about in the water? And what about roosting in the treetops? The poor little thing can barely hop 4 inches from the ground. Oh, this is going to be more difficult than first thought...

I am afraid she will soon be leaving home.... and hanging out... with this motley crowd.

I will miss her...

 I hope she will write home often."