The Story of Sixto: Day Two

20^th May, Day Two

By Digby

The duckling snuggled under the lion all night. Mummy gave it a new hot water bottle early in the morning. Today the duckling ate a lot more food. Mummy and I had gone to Beccles to buy some chick crumbs. (We also bought what we thought was a courgette plant... but it turned out to be a cucumber!)  We put some water in a paint roller tray so that the duckling could jump in and out when it wants to. It drank a lot of water and ate lots of food. We played with the duck on the floor upstairs in the cockpit a lot. Did you know that ducklings eyelids go up, instead of down and they have fur on the outside?

You can see that Sixto is looking a lot happier today.

By Mummy

Having the duckling on board, reminds me of when Digby and Celeste were tiny babies. The duckling squeaks when you put down, then as soon as you pick it up, it falls asleep immediately in your hands, lolling its head on one side. We decided to call the duckling ‘Sixto’ after Sixto Rodrigues the Mexican singer. Both of them were the ‘sixth’ one in the family! We looked up some duck facts on the internet and found out that we won’t be able to tell if Sixto is a duck (female) or drake (male) mallard until it is 3 – 4 months old and gets its full plumage.  We keep discussing whether we should get another duckling to keep it company when we are busy, but we don’t know if it would get on with another duckling or not. We have decided to wait until half term and see how it gets on. We all love the duckling, although it is a very big responsibility!