Owners take to caring for disabled ducks
If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck and walks like a duck, it’s probably a duck.
Purps and Hopeyduck are two Butler County waterfowl who fit two-thirds of that definition, but are still, indeed, ducks, despite not being able to walk.
Purps is a disabled duck who resides in Donegal Township with his owners, Haleigh Neff and Nick Coco. When he was a duckling, Purps’ legs began to develop outward in the wrong way, rendering him unable to walk.
Despite his lack of ground mobility, the 1-year-old duck lives a charmed life, essentially being Neff’s shadow.
“I carry him around, I take him to work with me, on vacation,” Neff said. “The most common question I get is, ‘Is that a real duck?’”
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