Grandma's duck...

Today is the last day of an incredible year. Six and a half months ago I literally found a new friend, Peepers. She has grown into quite a beautiful duck and has added a lot of character to the family. Everyone looks forward to seeing Peeps at family functions especially my grandma who claims that Peeps his HER DUCK! This weekend me, Nic and Peeps will be going up to grandma's for the weekend so she can see HER duck again and I can spend some quality time with Peeps too. I can't wait until we have a new place to live and Peeps can be with me all the time again :-)
Happy New Year!!!!

Have a safe and good one!

Peace out 'til next year!

What's up?

Nic's dad...a.k.a. Pa Fuller loves Peeps, I mean LOVES her. He is always going out back and talking to her...and I think she talks back to him. The other day we had her in the front yard for some grass time and he got down to her level and started talking to her. He is funny!
So it has been a week since my last post so I will quickly catch you up on what's been going on. Saturday the 27th was xmas at grandma's so of course we took Peeps up there and she enjoyed seeing everyone and the puggles too who are afraid of her :-)
A couple days ago we weighed Peeps and she is now almost 6 pounds...man I remember back in the beginning of July when she weighed 1 pound!!!!

No carrier, no peace!

I told her it was not a good idea but Nicole disagreed...so I let her find out for herself. Yesterday we wanted to take Peeps on a field trip to Petco to get worms. Nicole wanted to do this without the use of the carrier. "I will just hold her on my lap" she tells me. Um ok. Yeah Peeps was not having any of that! The whole way over there she was trying to climb up onto Nic's shoulder and flailing her wings around. She was better on the way home but...I don't think we will be going without a carrier again!

2008 Christmas card...

Ok here it is....the image on the front of the 2008 Christmas card :)

Gotta love that duck...

The weather outside was frightful yesterday, not sure if Peeps minded at all but she did seem pretty happy to see me last night. After looking at a house with Nic I went over there to see my puppy. Once again, as soon as she hears me set the alarm on my car she quacks her loudest :) So I go out in the backyard and get her out of her ducky duplex and wrap her wet little butt up in a towel and take her inside to the kitchen. I sat on the floor with her for a bit while she ate her dinner and preened her beautiful feathers. I might be a little biased but she is a gorgeous duck! Any way, I left about 8:30 to go home and I thought Nic was putting Peeps to bed for the night but apparently she and Peeps had a different agenda and you can read about that on Nic's blog.

Let's just take a moment...

I love to look at this picture of Peeps. This picture was taken back in July, the day my niece and Nic came over to my place and we let Peeps and my niece, Lauren play in the pool. We must have worn Peeps down because she got out of the pool and preened for a while and then sat down to take a nap right in front of us :-) She still had her pretty yellow coloring and her fuzzy little head!

Peeps' Wish List...

Some people have asked what Peeps wants for Christmas...ok it was only my mom that asked, but just in case, I have started a list of stuff that I wish for her to have eventually or things that would help me take care of her. her wish list can be found here: Peeps' Wish List

Have you hugged a duck today?

There is nothing in the world like a duck hug. Peeps give great hugs. She stretches out her neck and rests her head on your shoulder...oh I love Peeps hugs!!!!

(look how happy she is...she is smiling :)

Yeah I know she is a duck...BUT...

This morning I had to go and do blood work AGAIN and when I walked out of the lab it was raining. What? This is California, it doesn't rain here! So my first thought is of Peeps and that I knew Nic had already left for work and I am sure she did not put the tarp over Peeps' hutch. So up the street I went to Nic's house. Got out to the backyard and found Peeps huddled in the corner of her hutch...quacking at me...something about how I don't love her and how could I leave her out here in the rain like this! Yes she looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, but she does not know she is a duck. For most of her little life I have referred to her as "puppy" and her mom (me) is human and for as long as I have had her she has not ever seen another duck. So in her little mind she is not a duck...she's a princess :-)

Holiday card photo shoot...

Last night was our photo shoot for my holiday cards and of course Peeps is the star. She did really well with her collar on BUT only because Nic was keeping her attention by using mealworms...her favorite! This picture is only one of a few from the shoot and is actually not the one I chose to use but I don't want to give away what the card will end up looking like. I will post the REAL card after they have been mailed out.

Once upon a dream...

Last night I had a dream that Peepers was a baby (duckling) again...oh man, I don't know if I could handle that time in her life again! For the first few weeks that I had her she slept in a large plastic box in my room at night because she had to be right by me or she cried. We obviously bonded very quickly because I did not like her to be out of my sight as well :) So in my dream there she was peeping at me until I turned the TV off at which point she would settle down and sleep through the whole night, but in my dream she felt the need to sleep on my head!

Peepers and the crazy cat lady!!!!

Ok so Nic took a little vacation and I took over her duck duties for the weekend, which I don't mind at all considering Peeps is my duck :) So any way on Sunday I decided to take Peeps out for a little car trip to the feed store because we are out of straw. So as usual the minute me and Peeps roll into the store people want to pet her and ask questions about her and what not...and she LOVES the attention. So this lady starts petting her and asking all these questions and talking to Peeps for literally like 15 minutes, I got the feeling that she was not all there! So she finally decides she has had enough time with Peeps and walks away. I then think to myself that this lady HAS to be a crazy cat lady but her cart was empty. So me and Peeps go out back to get straw and WTF they are out! Oh no...what do I do? This has never happened. So I ask the next employee I see and he proceedes to tell me that they should have some by the end of the week. Uh oh! So I got Peeps a suitable replacement for the interim and head to the register. Who is at the front of the line? Yep crazy lady with her cart FULL of cat food :-)

Good morning!!!

Everyone should have a smiling duck to give you lovin' in the morning...it is a great start to the day!

Who cares that I had to get up earlier than usual this morning and go over to take care of Peeps...seeing her smiling duck face makes it all worth while! :-)

Going to bed...

Here is a pic of Peeps before Nic put her to bed last night...what a good puppy she is :-)

Peeps & me...

Ok so now Peeps is living at Nic's house in the backyard in her Ducky Duplex, so Nic will probably have more Peeps stories to write about now. Peeps seems happy enough and is giving Nic eggs every morning so that is good :-) I go over and give her loving every chance I get because I am just right up the way at Vonda & John's house in Buena Park. We both are happy with our new temporary homes.
Short update on me - my blood tests are coming back positive everytime now which means the viscosity of my blood is moving in the direction that the doctors want. Sunday night Nic gave me what was hopefully my last shot...I had 20 in all and have the bruises to show for them :-)
So that is all for now...will keep you all posted.

Catching up with Jen & Peeps...

Sorry I have been off the radar for a few days so I will provide a brief rundown of the happenings. 

Took Peeps to Thanksgiving at my grandma's on Saturday where she got to meet my Aunt's puggles who she wanted to eat...yum, puppies!!!! Saturday morning I woke up with a sore ankle which progressively got worse as the day went on until I could not stand the pain and about 8pm that night I went to the emergency room where I found out that I have a blood clot in my leg. SO now I am dealing with that :-( but I will try to keep up with this blog because hanging out with Peeps and telling her stories is theraputic for me :-)

1:30 in the AM...

Ok so I have not been feeling too well for most of this week (but feel much better today) and have been going to bed pretty early. So last night Peeps slept in my room in her carrier and at about 1:30am she quacked so loud I almost fell out of my bed. I got up to see what her problem was and there was an egg. Now I don't know if she had just laid it and that was what the quack was all about or if maybe she had a bad little ducky dream..who knows, but I left the egg in there for her to sit on and we both went back to sleep.

Under the weather...

I have not posted a Peeps update on here in a couple days because I have not been feeling too well, but I did move Peeps back outside today. You have never seen a happier duck than Peeps was this morning. She was so happy to see her Duck Duplex and duckuzzi this morning i thought she was going to start doing backfilps!

Weekend update...

Me, Peeps and Snickers went up to grandma's house in Ojai Friday night and stayed until Sunday morning. Saturday morning me, Nic & grandma met up with the rest of the family in Ventura to take the train to Santa Barbara for the day, this meant that Peeps had to stay at grandma's all day alone. I knew I was in for a duck tongue lashing when we got home...AND I GOT IT! She yelled and quacked at me for a few minutes but then with some food and loving, forgot all about it. After a quick bath in the sink we let Peeps play on the floor with us for a bit with the plastic thread spools and wood blocks. We HAVE to get her some of those! She cracks me up how as soon as we can stack them up she knocks them down. It is hilarious!!
Sunday morning I woke up and went to feed Peeps and after a week's vacation from egg-laying there was a giant egg!!! This one has to be another 2 yolker and I will find out tonight when I have breakfast for dinner :-)
NOTE: Due to the local wildfires Peeps is back to living in the garage now, which she hates! But it is for her benefit.

Mom's Home!!!!!

During the day Peeps lives in her Duck Duplex in the backyard. She can be upstairs in the covered hutch where her bed is and she has a food and water bowl or she can relax and play downstairs where her duckuzzi is...this is a shallow plastic container that is a mini-pool for her. She does have quite the life and I am a bit jealous. So as happy as she is to just sit in her duckuzzi all day she is ecstatic when mom (me) comes home. The minute she hears me set the alarm on my car she is quacking her loudest to let me know that I have left her alone all day and that she is starving and fading away to nothing...although there is still food in her bowl :-) (picture is of her house the day i set it up. it looks different now and I will update the pic as soon as I can)

Peeps helping me pack...

Last night I was in the garage tearing down my shelving to take over to my storage unit and Peeps was wandering around the garage supervising as usual. So I finished tearing down the shelves and started loading them into my car when I heard a ruckus coming from inside the garage. Peeps had pulled the power cord from one of Susan's many vacuums and was dragging it across the floor taking her food dish with it. This was one of those times i wish I had the video camera.

Random pic of me and Peeps hanging out in the living room.

Pickpocket Peeps...

Ok so Peeps has a pocket fetish. I know she won't admit it but she does. She just can't resist sticking her beak and sometimes her whole head into someone's pocket...not sure what she thinks she is going to find in there, maybe some yummy bugs, but she likes to look and her Auntie Kim was the latest victim. Monday night my sister Kim came over after work to rock out on Guitar Hero and that is when Peeps decided to strike! Kim was wearing her scrubs and Peeps checked the pockets in her shirt and did not find anything so then she thought she would see what she could find in the pants pockets as well. I think she may have come across some lint but that was pretty much it. So just a warning for those of you who like to carry bugs in your pockets...BEWARE! Peeps will find them!!!!

Peeps has a screw loose...

So I took today off from work to get packed and start moving into storage but first I had to finish relocating Peeps' cage and do some remodeling to it.  One of the things I did was install a padlock on her cage so that Joe Schmoe could not just go and let her out.  So I am sitting on a chair and trying to install the hardware and Peeps insisted on helping me.  Do you know how hard it is to try and screw in a screw with a duck standing on your foot trying to eat the screw, the screwdriver and the hardware???  And she was yelling at me the whole time!  I guess maybe she was telling me to hurry up or maybe I was doing something wrong WHO KNOWS?!?!?!  Only Peeps does I guess...and she'll never tell :-)

Peepers or Squeakers...

Yesterday evening me and Peeps were over at Nic's house and for half the day Peeps had been doing this weird neck/throat thing which made us think she had something caught in or tickling her throat.  So we were watching her very closely all afternoon.  Then in the evening Nic was sitting on the floor with her and Peeps started squeaking...sounding almost like a puppy that got stepped on!!!  So needless to say we got a bit freaked...is the vet open?  No.  Are they open on Sunday? No.  So we ended up calling this Emergency Animal Clinic Hotline thing and told the girl what was going on with the weird neck movements and the squeaking and then Peeps squeaked again.  We asked the girl on the phone if she heard it and she said, "no, can you make her do it again?"  How am I supposed to make her squeak again?  So now the girl on the phone wants us to open Peeps' mouth and look down her throat to see if we can see anything.  Um ok...ever tried to open a duck's mouth?  Not an easy task, but I finally got it open long enough for Nic to not be able to see anything.  So long story short Peeps stayed in my room all night last night and after the squeaking incident never did the neck thing again and seems to be fine.  WHEW!  I was worried there for a second.  Since it is somewhat of a blustery day here, her and Kailani are in my room right now watching I Love Lucy.   I love my girls! :-)

Peeps does not like my drum playing...

...or maybe she was singing with the music, I am not sure. Last night I set her up in the livingroom in her exercise pen right by me while I was playing drums on Guitar Hero World Tour. She was yakking the whole time I was playing a song and when I stopped playing she stopped yakking...coincidence? I think not! Either she liked it and was singing along or she was expressing her dislike like for my drum skills. I think she is just jealous because she does not have thumbs and can't play herself!! I'm just saying.

Yesterday morning...

So yesterday morning I went out to do my morning Peeps routine which consists of feeding, watering, opening her pen up so she can play in her pen/run...you know normal duck duties. So I opened the top of her hutch and she is sitting in her bed. Usually the minute she hears the sliding glass door open she is already standing at her food dish. But this day was different. So I opened the top of the hutch and she is sitting there looking at me. I say good morning to her and ask her if she has an egg for me. She immediately stands up and shows me her egg. What a good duck :-)

Peep Show :-)

Not sure why I can't hook a slideshow up to this account but until I figure it out here are some pics of Peeps through the months: http://s399.photobucket.com/albums/pp80/peeperstheduck/?albumview=slideshow

The beginning of a beautiful relationship...

Back in June of this year I found a new friend during what I thought would be a routine trip to Target. So I parked my car next to a planter at Target and as I started to walk away I hear a "peep" then another one. And there she was...a little yellow fuzzy ball of duck! Being the animal lover I am I could not leave her there. I first looked all around to make sure her real mom was not around and I found no other ducks or ducklings and there are no bodies of water close enough for her to have walked from. So I packed her up and went home...never even making it into Target! She was so little and cute and just "peeped" all day that we named her (well him) at the time, Mr. Peepers. Now that she has laid almost 2 dozen eggs for me we have dropped the Mr. and it is just Peepers. She has grown into a beautiful loving duck and my hopes for this blog are to write about her antics everyday, or as much as possible. So stay tuned for more!