The Burlington kindergarten teacher and her students set seven duck eggs to hatch and then watched daily as the ducks hatched. One day after the eggs hatched, the teacher decided to put the baby ducks outside to get sun. She put them in a big box where the school’s mouser cat was fed. The cat came back to her feeding box to find a duck dinner. Some of the little kids found the cat still in the box protecting her partially eaten meal and tried to get the cat out. They called the teacher outside to help. The cat hissed and spat at her. After all, it was her dining room and she planned to finish her dinner.

Mr. Bradshaw, the AG teacher, came to the rescue. He saw no way except to drop kick the box with the ferocious feline inside. The kick expelled her into the air. The little kids stood about crying about the loss of the baby ducks. Mr. Bradshaw explained to them that he would gather them up and take them to a farm where a farmer would fix them up. One little girl sobbed “but one doesn’t even have a head”: Quick thinking Bradshaw replied he might not be able to save all of them, but as many as he could. To remedy the bad situation, the teachers decided that they would just buy seven ducks to replace the seven deceased ones.

Would you believe they could not find even one baby duck at Atwoods in Enid or other towns close to this area? They finally checked at Fairview where they found they had only three left to sell. Mr. Bradshaw even checked Mark and Beth’s baby ducks that Kent bought for them when he was here before Easter, but they were much too big to pass off as the lost ones, so the teacher and Mr. Bradshaw are settling for the three that the “farmer” got fixed up.

Mr. Bradshaw is now a hero to the kids and the brunt of much teasing by all of the adults who soon heard the widespread story.

It is gratifying to know that so many people care enough to go to so much trouble to sooth the feelings of the sad little duck parents. What a great community we live in!