Special Pets.
Our Darling Duck Duo

by Jodie
(UK)

I remember those pet surveys at school. My friends thought it
funny when I said we had pet ducks.

We had two Indian Runner ducks. My grandad bought some day old
ducklings to raise for eggs. One day when we visited, nan had one little guy in a tray on the window-sill. He was not doing too well. He'd been squashed on the journey home and they thought he would not make it.

We adopted him and took him home. He made it through the night so we went back the next day to get another one for company and for my big sister.

That's how we came by Donald and Jamal. They were free to roam the garden all day, but wherever we were we had to get home to put them away every night.

They were fascinating to watch. Only one of the pair ever slept, while the other kept guard. They also displayed amazing synchronistic, especially when they saw their reflections in our greenhouse, thinking it was other ducks.

If I was feeling down or a bit fed up going into the garden to watch the ducks always cheered me up.

Grandad's ducks all turned out to be male (you can tell by a little curl in their tail) So all the other ducklings ended up on the dinner table, but not our special pets.