Archbold Teenager Has A Special Relationship With A Unique Duck

By: Rebecca Miller

Karli Luderman, who is a 16 year old sophomore at Archbold High School, got her first duck while still in elementary school. Four ducks later, she has thoroughly enjoyed her pets over the past few years. Her latest, and last duck, is Violet, a large, plump, pure white duck who got his name before they found out he was male.

As an only child, Karli has had plenty of time to connect with the ducks she has raised, and Violet will go down in history as one of her favorites. “He likes to play in his kiddie pool, splashing and quacking and swimming around in circles,” Karli shared. Mom, Keri Luderman, says that Karli is the only one that Violet lets hold him. He loves to crawl all over her and runs to her when she calls him. “I like to walk around the yard with him,” Karli added.

Violet has had a nice medium sized penned in area in the back yard that is left open during the day for him to wander in and out, and is closed at night for his safety. Soon he will have a lot more area to roam as he is going to join a couple of his siblings on a nearby farm.

“For some reason, in Ohio,” Keri said, “when you want a duck you have to buy six at a time! So we bought six, let Karli choose which one she was going to keep and the others were given to friends. I am thankful, Karli has had ducks as pets, they have taught her responsibility, unconditional love but most of all, she doesn’t want children anytime soon! I remember, it was Sunday night before the Monday she had to go back to school from being off a week on Spring break. We had violet in a rubbermaid tub in the garage… he was crying and this was at 11 p.m. I could hear her… I told Karli, if you do not shut her up we are going to have to get rid of her.

Karli had to lay on the couch and have that Rubbermaid tub beside her so Violet could see her and then she was fine, she stopped crying. And that’s when Karli said, I am not having kids for a very long time! I said, yep because a baby you cannot put back in the garage, they are a-lot of work, they become your life.”

Karli got Violet during Spring break this year and had the entire week to bond with her. Her mom says that to see them together now, they are comical. He thinks Karli is his mom and she is not quite ready to give him up yet, so he will move sometime in the next few weeks. Every time he comes in the house, he wants to stay inside and not go out, but Molly the cat says no about that. Karli said that the cat and duck mostly get along.

One of the funniest memories, Karli shared, was the day that they had just had the deck power washed and Violet went on it right afterwards and used it as a bathroom. Karli said she sprayed him with the hose and then hosed the deck down again.

Her duck has held a special place in her life, but Karli says she has plenty of other interests. Her biggest one is Volleyball, as she has been on the Archbold team since we grade school and has played Club Volleyball with the Defiance College travel team for the past three years. She now has her driver’s license and is enjoying being a sophomore in High School.

Rebecca can be reached at publisher@thevillagereporter.com