Pet 11

In those days, the children's home kids were well enough behaved to have the opportunity to go to week long overnight camp.   Because the home was/is affiliated with the United Church of Christ, the kids went to camp Mo-Val (get it? Missouri Valley?)  I actually went there for four summers myself so I can tell you it is a beautiful camp on a lake with lots of forest area nearby.   Here is a link to their website so you can see how pretty it is!  http://www.campmoval.org/outdoor-education/

Anyway, the camp has lots of ducks and geese nesting on the river.  Somehow, one of the kids managed to smuggle home some duck eggs he found.  Not only that, but he concealed a little homemade nest and hatched them!  Needless to say, he could not keep them in his room.  The two ducks that hatched were brought to my dad, who brought them to live in our back yard.  We bought on of those plastic kiddie pools so they could swim and they had the run of the rest of the yard.   We named them Herman and Henrietta.  They were a cute couple.  They pretty much kept to themselves and eventually Henrietta made a nest and  laid some eggs.  I think my parents were thinking duck l'orange or duck comfit but us kids were just thinking more ducks for the back yard!  One night I heard the duck cackling like crazy,  Henrietta's nest was under my window.  I didn't think any thing much about it, except that they were being noisy.  (Duck party maybe).  But the noise was actually the sound of Henrietta defending her nest against a raccoon. Duck vs raccoon is not really much of a match and the raccoon beheaded poor Henrietta and ate the eggs.  .  Poor Herman was a lonely duck for awhile.

The positive thing for us was that Herman started to become an actual pet.  However, he was my Dad's pet most of all. I guess he bonded with my dad from the start and I think he thought my dad was his mother.  Consequently , he started to follow my dad around.  He would walk (waddle?) with him up to the administration building and sometimes wait for him outside.  On several occasions, my dad would be paged to the front with requests to please, come get his duck out of someone's office.  When we would drive off campus, Herman would fly along side the car and look in the window.  If duck's were able to look mournful, Herman could do it.  I imagine an anthropomorphized sad duck, waiting for his mommy to come home.  The best Herman story is when my grandpa came to visit.  Grandpa Bassler was one of the smartest people I knew.    I can say that since I was named after him (Emil Henry - the Emil part).  For some reason, Herman took a liking to him and flew up to sit on top of his head.  My grandfather yelled, "Get this Goddamn duck off my head!"    Now there is a statement you don't hear everyday! 

The beginning of the end for Herman, and in a way our life in the big house, was when my dad brought some geese to live in the back yard.  They had taken up residency on the campus pond, so my dad thought they would be nice companions for Herman.  They largely ignored him, but I guess Herman felt frisky one day and tried to get one of the younger (better looking?) females to be interest in a little nookie.  The mama goose, however, did not think Herman was an appropriate mate and tried to drown him in the kiddie pool.  Fortunately, my dad saw the attempted murder and rescued Herman from impending duck heaven  The geese, on the other hand were renamed Dinner.

After that, Herman was a little timid and not as adventurous.

We left the Children's home not long after for my dad to take over being the pastor of Central United Church of Christ in Jefferson City.  The back yard had been rendered unusable by the geese. (The saying "like shit through a goose" is absolutely true and the quantity is also considerable!) My sister was in 7th grade and my parents were concerned about the increasingly dangerous neighborhood and less than stellar educational opportunities.  So off we went to another house.

      Herman went on to live a long life (for a duck ) on a farm in... wait for it... Hermann, Missouri!

More on the next house coming up.  Oh, by the way, the big house is now serving as the administration building.  The people who work there often complain of unexplained noises and creepy feelings when alone.  Told you it was haunted!