The Story of Dog and Duck: A Story for All Ages

by the Rev. Aaron McEmrys

There once was a dog that loved ducks – well, a dog who loved one duck, anyway. I happen to know the dog in question very well. Her name is Willow, and she lives at my house, along with me, my wife Eliza and our three cats.

One of Willow’s favorite places to hang out is Alice Keck Park Gardens, right across the street from the church. Our family spends a lot of time over there, walking on the trails and exploring the many secret paths that nobody else knows about.

Willow’s favorite part of the park is the big pond where dozens of turtle families sun themselves on warm rocks, big orange coy-fish swim in the cool green waters – and most importantly, where the ducks bob on the water every day, happy as can be.

One day Willow was snarfling around by the edge of the pond. She was so busy smelling all the good smells that she almost head-butted a duck that was standing on the edge of the pond looking at her. The duck was a Mallard duck, with a beautiful shiny green head and a bright beak.

Willow was very curious about the duck and the duck was very curious about Willow. Willow barked her friendliest bark, the duck gave his wings his friendliest flap and in no time at all they became the best of friends.

That night, when Eliza and I were tucking Willow into bed, she said, “Poppa, I am tired of being a dog. I think that tomorrow morning I will become a duck.”

“Hmmm”, Eliza said, “are you sure that’s what you want to do? Being a dog looks like a lot of fun to me.”

“I don’t know, Mama, a dog’s life is okay I guess – but I bet it’s way cooler to be a duck,” she said drowsily as she drifted off to sleep.

The next morning Willow woke up early and headed over to the big pond for the first day in her new life as a Mallard duck.

“Good morning, Duck,” she said to her friend the duck. “Good morning, Dog,” her friend replied. “Hold on, Duck, I’m not a dog anymore. I’m a duck just like you.” Duck bobbed his head, “That’s cool. Want to go for a swim?”

“Sure!” Willow exclaimed, and jumped right in with a big splash.

The two ducks, one sleek and feathery and the other big and furry, had a lot of fun for a while. They swam and chased flies and splashed around a lot, and even swam up so that little kids could throw breadcrumbs to them from the shore.

But soon Willow was completely exhausted from all that swimming. Every time she tried to climb up on the shore to rest, Duck cried, “Come on Willow, ducks don’t rest on land – we rest on water! We do everything on the water! Come on back in, the water’s great!”

“What about sleep?” Willow asked. “Why we sleep on the water of course. It’s very relaxing.

“Oh” she said. Maybe I am not cut out to be a duck after all. I like to sleep on my comfy brown pillow. “But maybe you can be a dog! It’s pretty fun to be a dog, and then we can hang out all the time, best friends forever!”

“That’s a great idea, Dog. I always thought I would make a good dog. See, look what I can do!”, Duck cried out, wagging his tail-feathers awkwardly and making a very strange quacking sound that was indeed reminiscent of a very wet little dog with a bad chest cold barking.

And so Dog and Duck came on back to our house, where they rolled around in the dirt and sniffed and snarfled at all of Willow’s favorite places. Duck was a little embarrassed to tell Dog that carrying around one of my socks or munching on a rawhide bone wasn’t really all that fun – but the real trouble began when the feathery and furry dogs decided to play Willow’s very favorite game in the whole world – chase the cats!

The cats, you see, were not the least bit amused to be chased by a small feathery duck-like dog, and in the blink of an eye it was poor Duck who was being chased through the house by three angry cats while Willow ran along behind shouting, “Hey cats, leave my friend alone you big bullies!”

Duck waddled and flew at top speed all the way back to the pond, where he came in for a landing with a splash. The cats, who do not like water at all, licked their chops with disappointment and went home.

“I’m sorry, Dog, but I don’t seem to be cut out for life as a dog anymore than you are cut out for life as a Duck. Maybe we can’t be friends after all.”

“I’m sorry too, Duck. I’m sorry my Uncles chased you like that. They can get pretty grumpy sometimes. But I think we can still be friends, best friends, even though we’re so different. We can still hang out right here all we want. You can swim and I can snarfle – it’ll be great! – Friends, Duck?”

“Friends, Dog!” Duck exclaimed in his quacky little voice. They did a paw-to-wing high five and I took a picture of them and made two copies – Willow keeps her copy taped to the wall right above her food bowl. Duck had his laminated, and keeps it under his favorite sunken log, next to his collection of tadpoles.

Dog and Duck are friends to this very day, so the next time you are over there walking around, keep your eyes open for a big golden dog and a green-headed duck chatting away happily at the edge of the bog pond, where the water meets the shore.

© 2009 Aaron McEmrys, Santa Barbara, CA