Now, Here's Something You Don't See Everyday...

Sitting at the kitchen table this morning, I glanced down at the paper and saw this:

Fresno Bee Classifieds

Displaying 1-2 (of 2 ads)
February 23

LOST DOG Last seen near Fresno and Dakota St. White male Pomeranian Puppy. Tan striped ears. Goes by the name Peepers. Has white fluffy coat. REWARD. 559-222-4154 or 301-1902

LOST DUCK - -Muskovy, dark feathers, white neck, red on bill, Shields & Temperance area, on 2/19. 559-917-0002

Lost duck?  Seriously?  You may not know this if you've never been to Fresno, but Fresno is a water-fowl kind of town.  Every few blocks there are these big water resevoirs with varying amounts of water in them (depending on the time of year).  Without fail, those reservoirs are occupied by all kinds on interesting ducks, herons, and many other birds that I can't identify.  

Ducks and geese also regularly fly by, but I have to admit that this confuses me.  It used to be clear to me when we lived in the northern part of the United States that these ducks were headed south.  But now that we live in much milder California, I just can't figure out where the ducks are going.  For example, I just saw some flying in their happy V shape just a few weeks ago.  Okay, so that was February, so it was technicaly still winter - so perhaps they were headed down to Mexico.  However, February here means the things are warming up, so does this mean that the ducks are back already?  I just don't know.

My point with this little digression is to say that sorry, but I think Mr. Muskovy Duck is long gone by now.  There surely is too much free-duck temptation in this town for him to just stay inside gazing forlornly out the window.  He's probably off swimming in a still-full resevoir with the other ducks that he used to merely envy while watching tv on the couch with his owner.

Or perhaps he's off flying with the others.  Somewhere.  In some direction that is unclear to me.  But I bet he's happy.