Lucy & Pepper

My husband wrote this tonight ... I've been an emotional wreck ...

so, tonight I had a few moments of almost return .. of the turning back of the clock and down of the vibration.. it was a difficult while.

I didn't get out and close up the ducks early enough, at about 8, I went out to put them to bed for the night, safe and sound in their duck house.. Fred was the only one I could find.. the two hens seemed to be missing.. it's a big garden and there's still a lot growing out there, and brown ducks can hide pretty good, but not that good, and I'd run a raccoon out of the far end..

He went up a tree just across the wall between us and the convalescent center next door.. Caryn came out to help me look and a neighbor walking by said, "ten minutes ago, there were two by the fence here".. then as he walked on, he stopped by the pond and said "hey! there's two raccoons here"..and then "I think they have one of your ducks"

they did.. Lucy and as they ran she flopped trying to get away. I grabbed her and held her close, and we looked for Pepper.. Caryn found a bad sign, feathers by the back wall where I'd seen the first big coon.. she asked how Lucy was and I said "not so good, she's bleeding quite a bit" and she left to get a blanket to wrap her in.. while she was gone, I found Pepper. She was hanging on the fence where the raccoon had either left or lost her in it's haste to get away from the approaching human. Pepper was not with us any longer.

I met Caryn by the gate and we took Lucy into the shop to clean her up.. she was a mess, her neck completely torn up and several bites in her back and sides.. we gently cleaned her and put salve on her wounds, and then wrapped her in a light blanket for the night. Twenty minutes later when I went to check on her, she was gone too.

We both cried, and then wept a bit, and then .. I didn't go out and kill every raccoon in a three mile radius, but for a minute, I thought about it. I didn't even curse these three. We lost two members of our family tonight.

Pepper and Lucy were our friends. They and Fred live in our garden and eat bugs, and duck food. They lay eggs and we feed them, and pet them, and they keep the garden for us.. we'll miss them..

I really am ready for a time when everything on this planet doesn't have to kill each other.