The sign outside the enclosure read 'The Black Swan, Cygnus atratus, is native to southeastern and southwestern Australia but is a popular ornamental bird throughout Europe and North America.'
Further details included how the Royal Swans, a mix of black and mute swans, came to City of Ottawa as a gift from Queen Elizabeth II in 1967 to celebrate Canada's centenary.
Every spring since then, city council employee Billy let said swans out of their winter quarters onto the Ottawa River. This year, the aging Billy was teaching his enthusiastic apprentice Seth all he'd ever need to know about swan care.
Billy went through the swan's feed, routine, basic veterinary information and then added, "See that little black one there, Seth? She's a weirdo. Never mated like the rest. Swans are monogamous breeders you know, mate for life. But that one just avoids all the others, I named her Bella the Bizarre cuz she's so damned strange,"
"Can't we find her a friend?" Seth hated the thought of anyone being lonely, even a swan.
"You can," Billy said. "I'm a crabby old man who has gout and plenty of city park lawns to mow so I'm gonna take my time with that. Swans are your job now, follow what I said and do as you want with Bella but no mad science experiments."
That night Seth jumped headlong into swan research on his laptop. He read that various swan species sometimes hybridized when desperate for a mate.
Over the next few weeks Seth noticed there was a lone male mute swan. It was a pathetic outcast: slinking around like a ghost watching all the other birds, particularly when they slept. Seth wasn't even sure it ate. He'd never seen it around when he fed the flock and it seemed paler, whiter than the other mute swans. Seth nicknamed it Deadward because if ever there was a living dead swan, this was it.
Bella ignored Deadward as much as she ignored the rest of the swans.
But for some reason Seth thought Deadward deserved more of a chance. So one lunchhour while sitting outside in the spring sun he confronted his superior with a plan. "Hey Billy, can I pen up the two loner freak swans together and see if they'll form a pair bond? I know one's black and one's white but it's not mad science."
"Please yourself kid." Billy answered mildly and went back to chucking his crusts at a large, hungry Canada goose nearby.
Alas, Seth's swan matchmaker plan failed. Miserably. Bella ignored Deadward. Deadward moped even more. As there was no point keeping them together, Seth let the two swans back out with the rest of the flock. Weeks passed. Bella the Bizarre swan continued her reclusive ways. Deadward Swan continued his morose non-existence.
Seth was at his wits' end to cheer Bella up. During their breaks, he complained about his failure to Billy who laughed and fed the ever-present goose some chocolate.
At home Seth trawled the internet and discovered that very occasionally black swans will hybridize with geese. Seth hatched a new plan.
"Billy, that huge goose you're always sharing lunch with, can I borrow him for Bella?"
"You mean my buddy Jake? He's been hanging around here for years, dunno why he never migrates with the rest of the geese but yeah, I guess if you can catch him, you can see if he'll be Bella's pal too."
Seth lured Jake the goose around the sheds and into Bella's pen with a muffin. And then promptly got the heck out of the way as the swan and the goose began a passionate mating dance.
A/N - I wrote this for the June 2011 drabble challenge (Animal!Twilight: the idea was to turn the Twilight characters into animals) over at TATS and wanted to post the slightly longer version here (610 instead of 500 words). It's pure, unadulterated self-indulgence: references to both of my homelands; a bunch of biology; my dopey sense of humour AND a cheesy pun! Oh yeah, this is the kind of classy literature I live for hehe ;)