The last nine days of our ongoing duck rescue attempts have finally resulted in Dorothy the Duck finding a new home.

It wasn’t easy.

After approximately sixty-seven texts, the lovely Duck Lady arrived Thursday morning with a portable “fence”. The plan was to set it up and tempt her inside with her favorite food. She would have a couple of days of going in and out of the pen before we would capture her.

Look closely and you will see the pen. Dorothy was definitely suspicious the first time, but once Banjo Man sprinkled a handful of canned corn inside she waddled right in for a tasty meal.

The second part of the plan was to lure her inside Saturday morning, the day that she was going to be rehomed. Sure enough, Banjo Man sprinkled the corn in the middle of the pen and, once our duck had waddled toward the corn, he shut the gate.

I was standing by, hiding in the house so she wouldn’t see me. Two people feeding her makes her skittish and we couldn’t risk her scurrying down the hill to the beach. Once she was trapped I came down to help, but I slipped on wet rocks (it was raining) and fell down to my knees under the deck. My pride and my right foot were injured, but I was in Duck Rescue Mode and kept heading to the pen. Thank goodness I had my trusty driftwood walking stick with me!

Dorothy went crazy for a few minutes and we were afraid she would try to fly out. I grabbed one of my Amazon wildlife nets and waved it around.

Right at that moment the sweet Duck Lady arrived. She’d brought a duck to lure lonely Dorothy into a crate, but she’d left the duck and the crate in her car for now.

“I can pick her up,” she announced after surveying the situation. Dorothy was pacing and quacking nervously. This wasn’t the way she wanted to spend her morning.

Pick her up? Huh?

I stood by with my net. Because anything could go wrong, right?

Nothing went wrong.

Dorothy even seemed to enjoy being held.

And check out this picture. Dorothy and the other duck were thrilled to see each other and quacked up a happy storm inside that crate.

I swear Dorothy is smiling.

Three adults and two ducks were very, very happy. Dorothy has gone to a little farm a few miles east of here. She will have three duck friends and a flock of chickens to hang out with.

While I was icing my foot I received a text saying that Dorothy and the other ducks were very happy together and settled in.

All’s well that ends well.

But…this morning I did limp to the front window to make sure that Dorothy hadn’t acted like a homing pigeon and found her way back to us.

The beach was empty. We’ll miss her–a little–but we’re so glad we don’t have to worry about her anymore.