Good Evening,

I’m super excited to introduce you to the newest member of the family, Virginia.

Welcome Home little one.

Virginia, previously known as Helen, is fondly named after my late Uncle Gene’s sister, Virginia. (we wanted to keep the theme of the bird yard - Uncle Gene)

Virginia (the human woman) was a beautiful classy woman. She had a fun-loving spirit, with grace, perfection, creativity and generosity, yet was humorous and joyful! She had an incredible smile, was tall and thin and loved the colors brown, beige and white. I remember her being a strong woman with a gentle demeanor and huge heart. Just fitting for our new little girl.

Virginia came to us from the Seattle Animal Shelter. She had been attacked by a dog, so she was in a foster home recovering from some wounds and injuries. I saw a few weeks ago that Virginia needed a home and there was something unique about her photo…could we call it love at first sight? Since we lost our sweet Pacey girl, we had room for another female duck. Sometimes it can be nice to have more than one female with the male birds, so one female doesn’t get over mounted in the Spring and Summer. I kept an eye out on Virginia and was saddened a few short days later when her posting was removed. So, I had assumed and was hoping she had found her perfect home. I still thought about her often and wondered, even though I had never met her.

Safe quiet space in our yoga, meditation room

Then, the day before Sukah’s surgery I was notified once again that Virginia was still looking for a home!! How perfect could this be?? I would be in Seattle with Sukah already…maybe it was meant to be after all! We filled out an adoption application and were trying so hard to schedule a time to meet her while I would be there. Due to short staffing because of COVID, her being in Foster care, and our extremely short time frame it was proving difficult and unlikely that we were going to be able to make anything happen. But, I brought a crate with clean straw, food and water bowls and a blanket over top for privacy, just in case! Thank you to the staff at the shelter and to her kind-hearted foster Mom, we had our phone interviews, shared some photos/videos back and forth and with one thing perfectly aligning with the next, Sukah and I were picking up Virginia right after I got him from his surgery. She was as precious as imagined in person and we were able to take her straight to the vet for her initial exam and health check. Our vet thinks she is a very young girl who has not yet laid an egg. She weighed a mere 2 lbs. and was so so nervous. It was clear she likely had remaining trauma from her attack……who wouldn’t? And it seemed she likely wasn’t very socialized and did not trust humans for anything. Initially she needed to be quarantined from the other birds until we got her test results back. It also was helpful to have her in some quiet peaceful spaces where she could rest and heal. We received her first test results back last week and she does not have AI (avian Influenza) which is a HUGE relief because it is an incurable disease. But, they did find some gape worm eggs in her fecal and she was a bit snotty and sneezy. So, the treatment began and she continued to heal and started eating like a champ. We just received her follow-up results yesterday and they came back negative which is wonderful news. We cannot wait to integrate her with the other birds.

We have brought her down to the bird yard once, holding her in a blanket, just so she could talk with the others and boy did her and Gene chat. He seemed quite excited to have a new lady to meet and the others were just curious… perhaps not quite as excited. Nan seeming the least interested. We will keep Virginia physically separated in the bird yard at first until she can fully heal and gain some weight. With her injuries and being so little, if Gene were to try to mount her he could break a leg of hers or even cause death, because he is so large. But, it will be nice for her to have other bird companionship and be in the same living space at least in the meantime. Currently she is hanging out with the pigs and Pearl. They all seem to get along quite well and she seems fairly content. Pearl seemed like she was interested in a meal when we first brought Virginia home, but now they seem to be buds, often laying by or on Virginia’s enclosure taking a nap. Maya is also quite interested in Virginia and has been such a sweet dog.

Every day she gets a little less nervous of me and seems to enjoy when I just sit and talk to her. We have a routine of nightly bedtime songs as she slowly closes her eyes. I’m not quite sure how anyone could fall asleep to my singing or how it would be at all soothing, but she seems to like it, so that’s all that matters.

I just tucked her to bed, now it’s time for me to do the same.

Goodnight, we hope you sleep well.

~ Namaste

Virginia

Update on Sukah & Virginia

Sukah’s Surgery