MIDDLESEX, Vt. (AP) – State game officials have backed down and allowed a woman to keep a 3-year-old wood duck that was brought home by one of her dogs when it was a chick.
Earlier this year, a game warden arrived at Kimberlee Stevens’ home in Middlesex to take the duck named Peep. When Stevens refused to hand the animal over, the warden promised to return with a search warrant. On Friday, the state Fish and Wildlife Department relented and issued a permit allowing the family to keep the bird.
Stevens said one of her dogs brought home the chick in late May 2013. They looked for a nest and its mother, but couldn’t find any hint of where it came from.
“It was like he was just dropped from the sky,” she said Monday. “It was really strange.”
Now, Peep lives inside Stevens’ farmhouse, roams the house alongside her five dogs and seven cats, sleeps next to her bed and has its own Facebook page. In good weather, it goes outside.