By Bob Krauss
Advertiser Columnist

The relationship between animals and people in Our Honolulu is mysterious and complicated. For example, the way dogs and cats get along with people.

You never see a stray dog in Honolulu. Plenty of stray cats. Does this mean that cats have more freedom than dogs? Why do people walk their dogs and never walk their cats? Is it because dogs have people better trained?

Probably the most self-satisfied animals in Our Honolulu are the ducks on lower Manoa Stream. A big white one known as Gabby comes quacking around begging for food. People out for a morning walk make a ritual of feeding the ducks breadcrumbs and birdseed, even cat food.

While these ducks do very well for themselves, being a duck in Our Honolulu is no bed of roses.

First there's the battle of the sexes. Have you ever watched two ducks make love? They do it right out in the middle of Manoa Stream. For some reason, the boy duck keeps pushing the girl duck's head under water. That doesn't sound romantic to me but it must be for ducks because little ducklings keep popping out all over.

Alas, it's a cruel world out there. Mongooses sneak around in the mangroves. Cats hover in the shadows ready to pounce. Two weeks after 10 or 11 ducklings hatch and scamper around after mama, she's lucky if half a dozen are alive.

The most heart wrenching duck drama I've ever witnessed took place after a big rainstorm in Palolo Valley. I was unaware of this catastrophe until I walked by an unhappy looking woman standing on a footbridge along the Ala Wai promenade that goes over a little side stream.

She was calling to half a dozen ducklings huddled at a bend in the stream where the current isn't so strong. Here's her story:

The mama duck hatched the ducklings in her back yard in Palolo. They were swimming happily in the stream when the rain storm sent a flash flood and swept them away. Mama duck quacked, calling to her darlings. The duck owner chased behind.

The little ducks had never been away from Palolo Valley before. They were lost. The rushing current carried them all the way into the Ala Wai. And they couldn't climb the steep sides of the canal.

The owner said she had coaxed them back into the canal to swim back home. They bravely followed, swimming with all their might. But a hose put across the canal by the dredging crew proved insurmountable. Exhausted, they floated back into the side stream.

The duck owner left them to their fate. I watched them venture back into the canal. The current carried them under the McCully Bridge. They were headed for the Ala Wai Yacht Harbor and the Pacific Ocean.

At the last minute, they swam back under the bridge and huddled in a calm eddy. I tried to get an outrigger canoe paddling coach to rescue the ducks. He wasn't interested. Do you suppose the little ducklings are half way to Tahiti by this time?

Reach Bob Krauss at 525-0873.