Sometimes a girl just needs a little alone time in the tub.

Take Dilly for instance. Dilly is our much loved, physically challenged duck. It’s been a hard winter for her without the pond. She finds it difficult to walk so she spends lots of time sitting around while her ducky pals wander around the yard rooting for goodies. She’s much more at home in the pond where she can paddle with ease.

Puddles and Gabby, the drakes, have reached full maturity and are overly randy lately despite the frozen pond. Dilly seems to get the brunt of the affection because she’s easy to catch, I think. She can’t seem to catch a break.

Yesterday, Hannah noticed Dilly didn’t look well. Her normally white feathers were dingy gray and she was huddled against a rock, shivering. She looked sick and depressed.

Here she is in the background. With concern, we rousted her and encouraged her to take a dip but it was clear that she could no longer hop into the mortar box (the winter-time bath tub). When we showed her some special attention, the boys jumped into the fray. It seemed as if a little alone time was in order.

We put the rest of the ducks away and plunked Dilly in the mortar box on her own. Water is a duck’s favorite thing, but Dilly just sat there shaking, leaving us watching with concern.

Then, after a bit, she came to life. She dunked.

And splashed.

And flapped her wings.

She managed to get out under her own steam and shook the water off like dog before settling in to preen.

It’s amazing what a bit of alone time and a bath can do for a girl. The end result seems to be a rejuvenated duck. Until the pond thaws out with the coming of spring we’ll facilitate bath time and try give her some space away from the boys.