Patty's heroics today.

I opened the ducks this morning and the two able bodied ones popped right out. And then Patty was right there ready to hobble out. She got down the little steps and then flew for a few feet. (This may be a way she will get around easier in the warmer weather when she wants to go farther).

Then she stood there and ate some corn. You can see her poor leg that sticks out. It's still very hard to watch her hobble around.  She made it to the end of the walkway and did a little foraging which she hasn't done since the injury 2 weeks ago. Then she sort of collapsed. She was in a grassy spot so not a bad place to rest. I went inside at that point but watched her with my binoculars.

Once the other two ducks walked back towards the duck house Patty was ready to follow them. She finally drank some water and THEN I saw her head towards the kiddie pool. She kind of tipped herself over and into the pool. First bath in 2 weeks. I was worried though that she wouldn't be able to get out. After watching her out there for a period of time, I decided to go encourage her to try and get out. She was leery of me, of course, and was sure I was going to do something to her and she was able to flop out and hobble back to the duck house (with me encouraging her). I knew she had to be exhausted as that was a lot of work after nothing for so many days. I shut them all up and turned on the heat lamp so she could rest.

After an hour I went back out and opened the door. She stayed in for the rest of the day but that was an amazing morning for her.