Effusions about Ducks

I love ducks.
I didn't always love ducks. I used to just kind of like ducks. Now I love them.
First of all, let me make something perfectly clear. When I say ducks I mean ducks. Not swans, which I find beautiful but have no strong feelings about, or geese who I think are just about the nastiest, meanest, and dirtiest animals alive. (I was attacked by a goose when I was little.) The only way I like geese is cooked. No when I say ducks that's exactly what I mean.
Quack.
College contributed greatly to this phenomena. After my first year at Otterbein as a music major, I switched to political science and started going to the branch campus of OSU at Newark.
When I left Otterbein, I left behind my only college friend. I didn't really know anyone at Newark and even though I tried to make friends it never really worked out for me. That was until I discovered the pond out back.
I made friends with the ducks.
Ducks are very friendly. And excellent lunch companions. Every day it was warm I would eat my lunch by the pond and watch the ducks. It was my favorite part of the day.
A couple Christmases after that I went to a party at the "Embassy Suites" for my friend Amanda's husband's company. Amanda I spent most of the night watching the cutest little ducks they had there in their indoor pond. These ducks were the most interesting I had ever seen. They were from somewhere in Asia, I think, and were tiny. They even had a little duck hutch to live in! After a long time of viewing enjoyment, Amanda and I named one of the ducks, "The Duck of Indecision" because he kept coming up to the water's edge, putting a foot in, leaning over like he was going to dive in, and then walking back to the duck hutch. (I actually haven't visited them for awhile and really should go see them. After all, it's not as though I don't have visitation rights.)
My fascination with ducks started to take off after that. It wasn't long afterwards that I had to finish up my classes at the main campus of OSU, and much to my delight I discovered Mirror Lake, and whole new host of ducks!
Baby ducks are the best. I think they're even cuter than puppies. And it's hilarious (and sometime scary!) how they just follow each other around in an even little line. One time at the Riverwalk in Gahanna I watched a group of tiny baby ducks swimming on top of the little waterfall. They would swim right up to the edge like daring little ducklings, start to go over, and then pull themselves back up at the last minute. After about ten minutes or so of this, one of the baby ducks finally went over the waterfall! Momma Duck quaked and looked over the edge worriedly, and as she did so each little brother and sister then proceeded one by one to follow after their sibling over the waterfall! I was scared for the babies because there were lots of sharp rocks down at the bottom, but luckily they were all okay and seemed to think it was great fun because they swam off happily while Momma quaked angrily at them, and when they continued to ignore her, finally flew over and rounded them up.
There were about nine baby ducks at Mirror Lake and a bunch of adult ducks as well. They were actually very reflective of OSU campus. They were a very diverse lot with all different types, sizes, and colors of ducks.
The first one I named was a baby at the time. He had several white feathers that stuck up from his head like spikey hair, so I named him "the Punk Rock Duck."
After that was Bob and Weave, Dodge, Dive, and Duck (haha) and many others I can't remember now.
So I highly recommend that if ever you need company, find a pond with some ducks.
You'll be glad you did.