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The saga of Beethoven the duck began one summer day, when my brother Joel and I were in the process riding down the hill in front of our house as fast as possible on bikes. I was riding my newly purchased Free Spirit, while my brother was riding his old French ten speed. As was the custom, we raced down the first hill, across the field and down the second hill to the river. Needless to say, we stopped once before the river. On this day, however, upon walking our bikes back up the hill, my brother noticed an egg lying in the grass.
There were also bloody pieces of another egg, along with the shell. My brother suggested that we retrieve our father, which is what we did, and my father, anxious to try out the electrical incubator he was to relieve in a few days in the mail, snatched up the egg an put it in the refrigerator. When the incubator arrived some days later, the egg was placed in it, but the rolling machine didnt work, so it had to be done by hand. You may be familiar with Chuck Berry's Roll over Beethoven, as was my father, and whenever it was time to rotate the egg, he would say something about rolling Beethoven over, which became the eggs name. Eventually, we began hearing peeps from the egg, and soon realized we were going to have a duckling on our hands in the near future. When he hatched, it was the early morning, so I was the only one awake.
I was there, looking at him when he came out of his shell, and so I was from that day forth, Beethoven's mother. Beethoven had imprinted on me, and there was nothing anyone could do to change the fact that he believed I was his mother. About a week after his being born, my family and I moved to my grandmothers house, a farmhouse on a fifty-acre farm, to help with all of the barn and yard sales going on. We took Beethoven with us to keep him from feeling too abandoned. At my grandmothers I was free to do whatever I wanted to, and I spent almost the entire time pampering the duck. I played records for it, set up a heat lamp, and played with him.
His yolk sack had not come of at birth, so he was a bit unsightly. The duck would follow me anywhere. If Beethoven was out of the box and I walked away, the duck would not be far behind. It was actually quite cute, the duck following me as if I was his mother. Eventually Beethoven stopped following me around, we built a large cage for him and got two other ducks as companions for him.
As Beethoven grew up, we learned that he was actually a she. This became apparent during the spring. Three summers after we had found her, Beethoven became a mother. She had three little ducklings following her around, she always kept them well fed, groomed and warm. Then one night, tragedy struck. Weasels are nasty creatures, and they can get into places most animals cant.
A weasel would find duck appealing, but duckling even more so. The weasel wanted the ducklings, and so did Beethoven. And so, Beethoven fought against a weasel to protect her babies, a battle she couldnt possibly have won. But she did succeed in protecting her babies, as all of them survived that tragic night.
My mother heard these happenings, unfortunately, she couldnt get to the cage fast enough to stop the weasel. If there is anything positive to draw from this unfortunate occurrence, it is this: Dont take your mothers love for granted. Good mothers would do absolutely anything for there children, demonstrated in Beethoven's sacrificing of her own life in order to save her children. Also, one of the things in life everyone experiences at one time or another: one wishing to take the place of someone in an unfortunate situation to spare them the pain or embarrassment.
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Research essay sample on Beethoven One Egg
