When Deena Rounds glanced out toward her neighbor’s pond in Central Oregon, she expected to see a peaceful scene — a few ducks gliding across the water, maybe a ripple or two in the late afternoon sun.
But something caught her eye.
“There was this one swimmer who just didn’t look right,” Rounds told The Dodo. “Long neck, long back … and the strokes were all wrong.”
That “weird duck,” as she first thought, wasn’t a duck at all.
It was an emu named Daisy.
A few months earlier, Rounds’ neighbor, Kasey Nothiger, had adopted the 2-week-old baby emu to join the three adult emus already living on her farm, Firefly Fields Northwest. But because Daisy was still tiny and fragile, Nothiger decided to keep her separated from the bigger birds until she grew stronger.
That decision, while necessary, left Daisy lonely.
“She was crying and pacing — you could tell she just needed company,” Nothiger said. “So I thought, ‘What if she just needs friends her size?’”
That’s when Daisy met five baby ducks.
The connection was instant. Within minutes, the anxious little emu stopped crying, snuggled into the soft down of her new companions, and fell asleep.
From that moment on, Daisy became one of the ducks.
As weeks passed, the unlikely siblings grew up side by side — waddling, exploring, and even eating together. When the ducks finally graduated to swimming in the pond, Daisy wasn’t sure she could keep up.
“The ducks jumped right in,” Nothiger recalled. “But Daisy just stood there, screaming — she was scared.”
After some gentle encouragement, Daisy finally took a step forward … and another … and then, with one big splash, she was in.
“I looked out and there she was, swimming happily with the ducks,” Nothiger said. “I couldn’t believe it. My heart just melted.”
It turns out that while emus can swim, it’s not something they often do — which made Daisy’s big leap of faith even more special.
Now, Daisy spends her days paddling around with her flock, proud to be one of them. Even the other ducks on the farm, who weren’t raised with her, seem to agree that Daisy belongs.
“They all accepted her right away,” Nothiger said. “It’s one big, happy, feathery family.”
