If I could speak duck, I’m pretty sure Mrs. Quacks was telling me exactly where to stick our photographer’s camera.
The large, Peking female is one of four resident farm animals at RAPS and she wasn’t too enamoured at the prospect of featuring in the Richmond News.
As I ventured past her nest and deep into her temporary enclosure, she let it be known in no uncertain terms that my presence wasn’t welcome.
Even my peace offering of a bowl of sweetcorn didn’t lighten her mood as she continued to protest.
Indeed, not being a duck person, I was half expecting Mrs. Quacks to beak-butt me.
“She’s very messy and needs cleaned out every day; but she’s hilarious, with a big personality; I can pick her up and hold her,” said Julie Desgroseillers, a full-time animal care attendant at RAPS.
“She builds a new nest every day and lays an egg every day.”
Twenty feet away, Mrs. Quacks really needs to be taking a leaf out of Froster’s pen.
The giant, fluffy, lop-eared bunny didn’t make a sound when I picked him up. To be fair, do rabbits even make a sound?
I don’t think I’ve ever held a rabbit before and Froster’s powerful hind legs were making life uncomfortable as he wriggled and buried his head in my arms.
Regular readers of this newspaper will have come to the conclusion I’m just as uneasy cuddling animals as I am humans.
