Baby Duck! I called Jim so happy, “There is a baby duck in the garage!” His response was as if the phone reception was bad. So again, I repeated…………
“How did a a baby duck get into our garage and what are you going to do with it?” My answer, “We’ll raise it” Jim, “We’re going to eat it?” Again, bad phone reception. There is an old vet down the street that takes in all kinds of animals. I love driving home at night after a good rain and watching the ducks splash around in front of his clinic. It’s a great place to drive by, you never know what you will see; calves, sheep, the huge old Tom Turkey, and always goats. There is an old sloped roof barn with a beautiful Red Bud that stands in front. So my guess is that some 5 blocks later the babies got separated from their Mama.
In my excitement over the duckling, I closed the door between the garage and breezeway to separate it from Coal and Jezzie. I forgot how small a duckling could “become”. He managed to squeeze under the doorway, and so when I came back in after calling Jim, our little duckling was “Muerto” I was very disappointed in my babies. I know they are not killers, they do so well with small children, dogs, old people. I had always thought that unless you were a squirrel or a thief you were safe. I know it’s instinct, but still it was a baby. I did have one more pop his head under the door. I shooed him back in, and secured the door with bricks. If I find him, I’ll return him to the vet. As much as this is a happy home, apparently not so much for Fowl. I was sad that they had killed the baby, but disappointed that if they killed it, why didn’t they eat it.
Part 1 of the Paradox: I don’t eat a lot of meat, but what I do – I enjoy. OK, yea, I stomp the snails, cockroach, swat or obliterate a fly or mosquito and No, I don’t eat them. I’m sure they are beneficial to the balance of life, I would prefer if they could balance it somewhere else. The only edible creatures I’ve killed would be lobsters, clams, mussels, oysters. The the last three don’t move a lot, and don’t really make any noise – and so it seems almost too easy. The lobster – well honestly it doesn’t bother me too much as they are cannibals. I remember as a small girl watching my uncle slaughter and dress a hog. I didn’t eat pork for years. But, how I love Bacon now! When I teach at Le Cordon Bleu, Austin there is a video we show about the beef industry. Actually the entire process of how the calves come in, slaughtered, skinned, butchered and shipped out. It’s actually very graphic, some students scream, cry, leave the room, sit and take it all in, and some laugh; more disturbing than the video itself. But, the lesson I try and teach, if you are going to take the life of something, whether it be animal or vegetable: Enjoy and appreciate what you have consumed. Respect the Food!
The beautiful thing about vegetables, you can cut lettuce, greens, herbs, pick beans or tomatoes, the more you consume the more they produce. Some things like beets, radishes, carrot and turnips, once you pull up – they are gone. Just enjoy and appreciate. Respect the Food!
The Paradox: I hate to kill, but love to eat
The Lesson: Respect the Food!
