Eeka McLeod is raising three kids, two chickens, one dog, one cat and ... three ducks?

Yes, three ducks.

"I had always wanted ducks, or at least one duck," she tells USA TODAY over a video call from her home in Arizona, with a diaper-clad duck named Mooney resting in a baby bassinet at her side. "I've also wanted deer – don't get me started on that – but anyways, I've always wanted ducks."

So, she took a quack at it.

McLeod got her wish for domestic ducks after she moved her three kids from California to the Grand Canyon State in April of last year. Her mental health was on the decline, not to mention she was diagnosed with a few autoimmune diseases. McLeod, 43, is a single mom and she wanted to own property to hand-down to her kids one day – hence the move to a more property-rich state.

After they settled in, McLeod finally scratched the itch last August. "I'm gonna do it. Today's the day," she remembers. A local organic farm store in Mesa had 12 ducklings and they told her to come in. Her kids didn't believe what was happening.

"It took them a few minutes," she says. "I think they thought that I was really messing with them." But there the ducks were, in a tub under a heat lamp and everything. The family took two home that day: Jelly, a little runt, and Mooney, both Indian Runner ducks. They later adopted a third, Topsy, a Cayuga duck.

It's changed their life for the better, and thrilled millions of TikTok and hundreds of thousands of Instagram followers along the way. Research shows, after all, pets lower stress levels and even help with heart health.

"The ducks came into our lives during such a – especially for me – just a really dark period and just brightened up our lives," she says. "They have brought us an incredible amount of happiness, and it's always something that we're laughing about together."

Ducks: A day in the life

A typical day in the life of a duck will vary, at least in Arizona, where the sun scorches and dry heat drags on in the summer. Year-round, though, the ducks wake up at about 5:30 or 6 a.m., around when the rest of the family starts hustling for school.

The ducks go out immediately (along with the two chickens, Princess Peach and Barbie) and get snacks. They can play in the heat until it reaches about 95 degrees, then the chickens go in their air-conditioned coop and the ducks come into the house to nap and snack all day. They return outside in the evening then come back in for bedtime and sleep through the night. These ducks need to be protected since they're flightless and make for easy prey.

But back (or waddle) up – what does "play" mean exactly? Swimming, chasing pigeons, looking for bugs, following each other around. But "if I go out there and call them, they come running to me," McLeod says. They can't fly, like most domestic duck breeds. And as for food, besides duck feed, they love peas, lettuce and dried meal worms. "Took me a minute to get used to the worm situation, but I'm good now," she adds.

People often ask about the ducks' poop. And if you've been around any park or pond, you'd know why. It's everywhere. Why do you think these ducks wear diapers when walking around the house? They also wear them when traveling, like in the car on a coffee run (seriously) or on vacation to a rental home.

McLeod can tell each apart by the sound of their quacks, she says. Females make more of a loud "honk" noise, while males make more of a raspy sound.

"Mooney definitely knows that I'm the mother, and so it's almost like she screams for me, like she's very upset that I've left her alone," McLeod says. "How dare I have the audacity not to cater to her every second of the day?"

Chickens, goats and geese, oh my!Why homesteading might be the life for you

'I was afraid we were going to lose her'

Of course, like any pet (or human), life hasn't been totally smooth sailing. Mooney, for example, came down with bumblefoot back in April, a common and treatable ailment for birds. It looks like swelling on the bottom of the feet. However, the stress of it all snowballed and over the next few weeks, she struggled to breathe.

"I was afraid we were going to lose her," McLeod says. They'd be up all night. It turned out that her reproductive tract was too large for her body and it was compressing her air sac, similar to our lungs. In a rare surgery for birds, she was spayed. It saved her life – to the tune of $8,500 – but she has since developed anxiety.

"A lot of people forget that animals have anxiety, so she will have these sad little panic attacks, and I'll have to get up in the middle of the night and help her regulate, just like I would a child, and then she's fine," McLeod says. "But she is the sweetest, most docile little soul you'll ever meet." Mooney now sits with McLeod while she works – and conducts interviews with journalists, us included – studded out with a personal fan, since she doesn't like her temperature above 65 degrees. She also stands on an ice pack covered by a pee pad.

Ducks typically live around 10 to 15 years, according to a PetMD blog post by Dr. Sandra C. Mitchell.

For humans:What does stress do to the body? It might be worse than what you realize.

Why pet ducks might be what you need in divisive times

So, why are people so into these ducks? And why might you want to have some of your own?

The world is at war. The U.S. specifically is battling ongoing political division. Everyone's angry. Embracing the ducks could help alleviate some pain.

"I don't see a lot of things that are just positive anymore on social media. The ducks are positive," McLeod says. "I feel like no matter what you are, religious, not religious, left, right, Black, white, Mexican, Asian, whatever it is, the common denominator for a lot of people, is a love of animals, and that's what I've seen happen."

Maybe it's time we all got our ducks in a row.