21 October 2016

There Once Was an Ugly Ducky...

This is Ducky. She has featured on this blog before - as a background character, if you like. As you can probably see, she didn't start out in life as the cutest lamb there ever was. She was tiny with knobbly knees and I would have placed money on her growing horns. So she was called the Ugly Duckling, or Ducky for short.


A few months later and her looks had improved considerably but the name Ducky had stuck. Her personality also shone through - she was cheeky and loved tummy scratches. She was in the shed with other lambs who would be fattened up for market. She was too small to keep for breeding.


And so do you know what I did? In a moment that may be by some considered idiocy I threw her out into the field with my lambs. I checked in on her all day, hoping and hoping that the lamb who'd never seen or eaten grass would just eat some grass. It was around 3 o'clock in the afternoon before I saw her eating grass, but what a sight!


The following morning Ducky was still with the girls. The four of them had been together since day one - Ducky was new, so there was some pushing and shoving at poor Ducky until they worked out who was who. But it didn't bother Ducky too much. First at the gate in the shed, it was no different in the field - if she head me she came running.


She'd only been in the field for a day so she wasn't completely settled, but she was eating grass much to my delight.


It was business as usual for the other lambs. Miss Millie:


Pip and Margo:


Rosie and Millie:


Ducky:


That evening I checked in on the girls again. Margo:


Rosie and Margo:


Rosie:


Rosie and Pip:



Millie:


And as for Ducky, she may not be the prettiest sheep in the flock, but she'd settled and seemed happy eating grass. She was saved!


Welcome to the family, Ducky.

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