Kind Woman Finds a Fitting Friend for an Anxious Duck

An incredibly kind and compassionate woman named Annette Calarco tells the story of a sweet but nervous duck named Cleo and how she found a fitting companion to help soothe Cleo’s separation anxiety. Cleo had followed a friend home. Knowing her family had a pond, the friend left Cleo in Calarco’s care.

I almost cried when I saw her because I was so stressed out with my rescue animals and someone was leaving me with an animal that I I knew nothing about about ducks. She had separation anxiety. She was always very upset when you would leave her alone. I had to take her everywhere I went.

Calarco began looking for another duck she could rescue so that Cleo would have a friend.

After a few months I decided to find her a friend. I wanted to rescue another duck that had been dumped like she had. I came across someone’s post on Facebook saying there was a white duck in their local pond that they’d never seen [before] and I knew immediately that was a dumped duck…Henrietta was right there and rand right put to me… I took her home introduced them. They just became best friends.

Unfortunately, Cleo has difficulty walking due to a vitamin deficiency from birth and her condition is getting progressively worse.

For those who don’t know, every morning my rescue ducks Henrietta and Cleopatra (who were dumped at public ponds) walk to their pond and return every afternoon before sunset. Unfortunately Celopatra has a condition that is progressively making her disabled, so she needs to spend as little time on her legs as possible. So she gets carried where she needs to go most of the time, and Henrietta seems to be happy to not have to slow down for her anymore.

The big-hearted Colarco also rescues cats and performs TNR to help control the local feline population.

Lori Dorn
Lori Dorn

Lori is a Laughing Squid Contributing Editor based in New York City who has been writing blog posts for over a decade. She also enjoys making jewelry, playing guitar, taking photos and mixing craft cocktails.