Jessica's Blog

Every now and then a story rides out of the news that actually wrenches my gut more than others.  News in general is horrible stuff.  Murder, rape, robbery, scandal.... so I don't usually watch.  Tonight as I was leaving to go meet with some friends Hubby told me a story that just floored me. It totally caught me off guard and made me really sad.

Our local car wash, The Delta Queen,  looks like a river boat.  There is a mote around it with decking and in the water are fish and ducks; quite a few ducks.  Every spring there are ducklings.  They walk around the car detailing area and nest in the bushes.  Kids like to feed them, and as you drive out of the car wash, you drive carefully so as not to bump into them as they waddle along.  They are adorable and relaxing and part of what makes it such a great place to get a car washed.  Makes you feel like family.  The big domestic mutt ducks that apparently started at a gift of two ducks back in 1972!

Well, last night some kid drove up, herded a bunch of the ducks and ducklings from their nesting area near the water into the neighboring parking lot and mowed them down with his car.  We're talking 15 or so minutes of footage on the security camera of this guy running the ducks over... and over... and over and picking them up and throwing them against the walls.  Just horrible horrible stuff.  He killed ten of them in a really bad way.

I left the house to go to my friends' for the evening and found myself going to the car wash.  How bleeding heart of me, but I gotta tell you, I wasn't alone.  There were two local news station trucks there.  I thought maybe all the ducks were dead and wanted to offer condolences and see if they needed a donation for more ducks or something.  The ducks made me happy in a quiet and graceful way and them being murdered was a shock, simple. That sad feeling of wanting to help but not quite knowing how.  It felt so silly and goofy, but the story really hit me and the car wash WAS on the way...

Long story short.... I ended up on the 11 o'clock evening news.  I got into a conversation with the CBS reporter covering the story (she was editing it at the time) and she ended up interviewing me.  Funny... and yes, I called home and gave my hubby a  chuckle about my homage to the Delta Queen and how I ended up on the evening news for it.  Turns out there is well over $3000 in reward money going to finding the guy who killed "massacred" the ducks.

It sounds so silly since they are ducks.  But that's just it, they're ducks!  What did they ever do to deserve this?  The footage I saw on the news(along with part of my interview) was just so sad.  I'm not all vindictive and "burn him at the steak" about who did this.  I think they really need help of some kind.  Studies show those who commit such atrocities are happy to do so to people too.  But I DO hope he gets picked up soon.

Why do I care so much about these ducks?!?!  The reporter was musing the same.  She said the story was spreading so fast.  She called the Nextel operator to get the address for the Delta Queen in Campbell.  The operator for the cell phone service said "OH!!!  Have you heard about their ducks?!?  Isn't it horrible?!?"

Ducks, the new sacred cow for Campbell, CA.