The security screen to my back door (it's also the door into/out of the kitchen) doesn't latch by itself. I have to pull it tight and turn the lock to make sure it's secure, but don't usually bother with that until I go to bed. It's been so warm lately I also keep the front and back doors open for cross breezes. Also, when I get up to go outside, my two doxies go with me, and the younger one noses the screen open ahead of us. It's a ritual. And they nose it open again to come back inside if they stay out longer than I do. (Dooley is safe around chickens, Zorro is not unless he's supervised; I make sure HE comes back in with me.) Anyway, I am at my computer and also watching TV, when I hear the sound of water slapping in the Bistro Dog Waterer. Hmmm. Both dogs are crapped out on the sofa. So I get up to go look, and there are Louie and Thelma, my only ducks, a pair of Cayugas. Louie is dabbling in the water to the left and Thelma is picking up individual dog kibbles from the other Bistro unit to the right. "Well, hello," I say, and the ducks look up. Hi, mom! their tails wiggle. Back to the water and kibble. So, I gently shoo them outside. An hour or so later, when it's getting close to dusk and about time for me to check on all the chickens to make sure they've gone to their coops, I turn in my chair and right behind me, about two feet away, is the pair of ducks, just looking at me. Both doxies are sitting up on the sofa watching them. (No worries, the ducks have put those dogs in their places!) Nobody had made a sound. No soft whiffling "burf" from the dogs, no little gabbling from the ducks. They're just standing there on the carpet, heads up high, looking at me, looking around, looking back at me. Hmm, what an interesting place Mom spends so much time in, ignoring US. Hmmmm. When I laugh and ask, "What ARE you up to?" both ducks gabble a little bit. Louie bobs his head. So I get up and herd them back outside. However, we have to make a turn to head towards the back door, and both ducks miss that turn. Now they're padding along further on the carpet, turning their heads in both directions to see what's in that part of the house. (It's a Great Room situation with furniture making the divisions and routes of travel.) This time I had to pick up Louie and carry him outside. Thelma followed to the edge of the carpet but stopped. I went back to get her and she heard Louie outside complaining, and she trundled onto the kitchen tile and out the back door ahead of me. In protest, both ducks slept on the back door stoop so any door opening would smack their bodies if I wasn't careful. Love my ducks. I'd have taken photos but I'm a horrible housekeeper and don't want that evidence on the Internet! But hey, neither of the ducks pooped in the house!! Amazing. They did poop on the threshold on their way out, though.
Haha, what an eventful night! We always keep our ducks in the house as babies but in a tiled room which we don't use much, we never have them anywhere else in the house except the bathroom for a bath and a good preen. One day a month or two ago (during mating season ) my two adult males followed me into the house and attacked my sister's feet! I had to try and get them both off of her and out of the house. We both ended up with quite a few bruises I would love all the ducks to be able to wander around our house but like you said, poop means we can't do that unless we have the proper equipment lol
TOTALLY AWESOME..... I have a great big thinkin of ya turnin around and seein those babies standin there !!!!!!
Ducks are extremely smart. Mine come up onto the back deck and wait for treats. They do that even if they have to wait for more then one hour. I kept my injured duck in the backyard with a one of its siblings, which I rotated out each day. He started to show off the yard in a really cute way. But then he discovered the dog door. Wow looks just like the duck house door, only with a flap in it. Needless to say he played with the flap for over an hour, but never pushed himself into the house. Good that it wasn't Sunshine, he would have.
Years ago at one of the Fla. Disney resorts we had a pair of mallards that would enter our motel (ground level) each morning and demand food. Our grand daughters thought it was pretty neat- the Princess did not.
My muscovy does this all the time. She knows to stay off the carpet and will quietly watch us watching tv from the kitchen. She is so proud of her ability to open the screen door and gets indignant when we make her go back outside. The pekin is no where near quiet enough to get away with this. She blows it every time with her loud flapping feet! She doesn't understand how she always gets caught.
