Several lakes surrounded the University campus where I went to school years ago; so, the ducks who lived on the lakes, usually walked students to class each morning hoping we would share our breakfast. We could hear duck wings flapping, and a chorus of quaking, before we opened our eyes each morning, including week-ends. I suppose Roosters were born to wake up farmers, and Ducks were born to wake up students- Or at least that's what I thought-
Because most of the ducks I knew were polite and easy to deal with, but this educated group of ducks were different; they were were loud and aggressive, especially if you didn't offer them something to eat. Hence, the best thing to do was leave the house prepared to feed them, and never, ever interrupt their breakfast. Some students believed that the ducks knew which students were going to fed them, much like a waiter knows a good tipper, so they would immediately start attacking the students who didn't have food, and peacefully surrounded the ones with a bread bag. Incidentally, most students left their house each day with their books, and a bag of bread for the ducks.
It was hard to remember the ducks rules early every morning, therefore, on occasion a student would forget to bring the ducks food. Hence, it just so happened that one students memory lapse, provided a Daddy duck with the opportunity to teach the rest of us a valuable lesson. Plus, in addition to entertaining the campus with the funniest thing most of us ever witnessed in public; this daddy duck also reminded us to never, ever interfere with a ducks breakfast.
On the morning in question, I was sitting by one of the University lakes reading, when I overheard a couple arguing in front of a pair of ducks. The voices of the arguing couple and the gander's squawking sounded like an aggressive duck fight; and one loud enough to wake every creature on earth.
I felt sorry for the ducks, because this duck family wasn't bothering anyone until the couple came along. They were minding their own business, trying to feed their ducklings breakfast and I suppose send them to duckling school, when these people showed up and disturbed their morning. Hence, it's easy to understand why the daddy duck got his feathers in a ruffle over the human couples apparent rudeness and quickly charged in their direction.
When he approached the couple the man realized he was being challenged, so he put his hands in the air as if giving himself up for arrest, but Mr. Gander wasn't having it, and continued to advance upon the guy.
Everyone around the lake, including me, started laughing as this poor man kept shouting for help and backing away from his attacker. While the rest of the duck family squawked, the guy shouted and raised his fists as if demanding a fair fight from the creature, who continued his advance until he chased the guy down the sidewalk. It was the funniest thing I'd ever seen, or at least that's what I thought at the time...
However, later that afternoon, I was in another class in the same building, and I heard squawking again, only this time I was inside a classroom, so the honking, feather flapping argument, must have sounded really loud outside the building.
The classroom had three hundred theater style seats and two double doors at the entrance, so the students, including me, sitting in the seats near the entrance, could hear someone outside shouting, "Let go of me, ouch, let go of me," followed by more squawking and honking, until the double doors to the classroom blasted open, and in came a man running from the same duck I saw that morning.
Then, instead of rescuing their fellow student, everyone began climbing to the top seats to get away from the dangerous creature; who was doing his best to run with his head low enough to nip the man's heels and balance his wings at the same time. -The duck resembled a small airplane coming in for a landing-
The man ran up the row of seats with the daddy duck in hot pursuit nipping at his ankles... while students were shouting, "Did you forget to give him bread?"
Finally, someone latched onto both man and duck, and the situation came to a screeching, honking, feather flying halt, leaving an entire classroom of students laughing hysterically.
This daddy ducks behavior that morning was one of the most valuable lessons I've ever learned without having to pay a penny or endure a consequence.
And the lesson was; there are strict rules when it comes to ducks; you should always bring bread, and never, ever interrupt their breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
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