Duckie: The Original
Before we picked up Abigail, we picked up some essentials for puppy preparations, one of which was an elephant that was later named Mickie. We also found a cute Duck that went “quack-quack”, but because this is an ele-loving household, we took Mickie with us to pick Abby up. I was convinced she would love and love on her elephant, making Mickie her number one. Yeah, I was wrong. She took to the duck soon after she got over being in a new home. In fact, Duckie was the one she would curl up with for naps, and he was the one she always came running into the room with. So, Duckie was her number one. Duckie goes into the mountains with us, he showers with us, he is always near. Because he is her closest companion, he has had a few unfortunate scrapes and has needed emergency surgery more than once. He used to go “quack-quack”, but sometime around the 4 month mark, he was permanently silenced with a bad case of laryngitis. Thus, Duckie 2.0 was introduced, in hopes of being an organ donor. You see, it was a sad day when Duckie could no longer quack back in response to Abby’s love bites. When we got home with 2.0, we had our hands full and were getting settled in for the night when Abby sniffed him out from underneath coats and blankets. She was so excited, running through the house, tossing him, biting him, and he responded with “quack-quack”. So, although, he was only acquired for his working voice-box, she was so happy I didn’t have the heart to take him away from her. However, the younger, much healthier Duckie did not replace the original. NO. Her snuggle bug was still the one with permanent damage to his voice box.
When we had to go to Texas for 8 days, it was decided that 2.0 would accompany her to the neighbors home because I could not handle losing Duckie. I mean, I don’t think Abby would have been able to overcome her sadness if something happened to her first love. When we picked her up, we were told that poor Duckie had an incident outside with Abby and her cousin. Details were scarce, but somehow he ended up outside, frozen in the snow. He was yanked up, full of snow, and defrosted on a shelf in the garage. That is when it was discovered that he was only half of a Duck. His head and the top shell of his body, and one wing. That is all that was left of poor Duckie 2.0. But, because they were worried of my reaction, they salvaged what was left and sent her home with him. She loved on him, and still played as though he were her whole friend.
A few days later we had to be in SLC for one night, so she stayed with them again and you can guess which Duckie accompanied her for another stay over. That is right, 2.0; the Original was safe and in the toy basket waiting for her to return home to him. That was a damn smart decision! When we picked her up we learned “Um, Duckie died a tragic death and his funeral was straight into the trash can!”… apparently, he was so shredded after a tug of war incident that he was unrecognizable. Unrecognizable. Let that sink in. So, no, Duckie: the Original will never go on sleepovers. EVER.
Thankfully we found Duckie at our local grocery store and a new one is on our list for Sunday. She has another stayover Tuesday night and I’ll be damned if our original is going over to that house. LOL.
