R.I.P. Snow

[Tevyes Dad]

Well it has been nearly a month since Snow has passed. We think of her every day. She left a very big hole in our flock. We are coming to terms with her loss as are the ducks. The hardest hit was Noir. She now spends much of the day cuddling up to large things. I didn't realize she was so attached to Snow, but it is obvious she is mourning the most. In 20/20 hind sight, I remember chuckling to myself fairly frequently that the largest white duck and the smallest black duck were hanging out - perfect opposites. The door has not malfunctioned again but we wake up every morning and check that they are out... Even if we just went to sleep a couple hours before. It is easy to go back to sleep knowing that our duckies have their food, water, shade and pool available to them. Everyducky else seemed to recover fully by the next day and all seem to be in good health now.

Thanks again for all of the support. You are all great as is this forum.

@hilaryyy - I am honored that you chose this for your first post and

. I don't know about "deserving" to loose a bird, but Snow was lost due to negligence, we aren't blind to that and that is what makes it much harder. Snow certainly didn't deserve her fate and we are sorry we failed her. Since there is no redo button, we can do two things: 1) Make sure it never happens again, which we will do by always insuring the ducks get out in the morning. The automatic door still saves us the effort of getting up and getting dressed at O'dark-thirty (especially in the summer), but we can wake long enough to insure they are safe. 2) Put this info out so that possibly someone who hasn't suffered this particular heartbreak, may not have to. Did you get some of @Amykins call drakes? If so... Pictures!!!

 

[Amykins]

Fun fact: I actually didn't know Hils had even made an account here until I read his comment. That's just the awesome kinda guy he is. We both love hearing about your flock, and Hils especially loves Tevye. He even showed your video of Snow "talking" for treats to all his work mates.

I know how you feel; and a month after the fact even I can't believe Snow's gone. I know under different circumstances maybe things would be different, but you can't beat yourself up for it. I still think "what if I'd just gotten Milkshake to the vet sooner? What if I'd noticed her symptoms earlier?" and it's so easy to trap yourself in this cycle of blame, guilt, and loss. But as you stated, all we can do is try and prevent tragedy from happening again. And I know you and your wife are real stand-ups as far as duckdom is concerned. You have security cameras, lights, all sorts of amenities and a covered pool all for them! It's clear you go above and beyond for your birds. Please don't forget that.

 

[Tevyes Dad]

Fun fact: I actually didn't know Hils had even made an account here until I read his comment. That's just the awesome kinda guy he is. We both love hearing about your flock, and Hils especially loves Tevye. He even showed your video of Snow "talking" for treats to all his work mates.

I know how you feel; and a month after the fact even I can't believe Snow's gone. I know under different circumstances maybe things would be different, but you can't beat yourself up for it. I still think "what if I'd just gotten Milkshake to the vet sooner? What if I'd noticed her symptoms earlier?" and it's so easy to trap yourself in this cycle of blame, guilt, and loss. But as you stated, all we can do is try and prevent tragedy from happening again. And I know you and your wife are real stand-ups as far as duckdom is concerned. You have security cameras, lights, all sorts of amenities and a covered pool all for them! It's clear you go above and beyond for your birds. Please don't forget that.

Wow! I never would have guessed @hilaryyy was your Hils. I guess the questions about getting ducks from you make no sense in that context. And thank you, but we aren't in a cycle of blame, guilt, and loss. Only accepting responsibility. We aren't beating ourselves up and we have forgiven ourselves, but for us and anyone else, what happened to Snow was not OK. Only by acknowledging that we made a mistake, can we prevent it from ever happening again. And as far as going above and beyond, look who's talking miss "I can't take a job unless my babies can come along."

And by that I only mean your level of dedication is at least as high as ours.

 

[Frindizzle]

I'm so sorry about Snow.

 

[needlessjunk]

I'm so sorry about Snow. She was something else. I didn't see this thread till now either. We all do the best we can but we are human and just not make the same mistakes again. Sure it helps a lot to have those cameras so you can just wake up and make sure they are set. My hubby still can't believe you got a pool for your ducks, lol.