Babies for Tilly!

     It's a beautiful day!     

 

      Now for  a sweet story. I explained in the 2nd post beneath this one, that Mathilda (Tilly) the goose has been trying to become a mommy for 7 years to no avail, so I slipped fertilized duck eggs neath her which she's been patiently  sit- sit- sitting on, for weeks. They should have hatched by now. I checked her nest whenever she vacated it for a swimming break, which  occurred about once a day. I became concerned that a hatching just WASN'T going to happen at all; often the eggs smelled bad, I knew some were rotten and had to be tossed. Often the eggs were cold,  and her egg cache began to dwindle. Meanwhile, our duck Mia, hatched 6 little babes in her woodland nest.

   One afternoon I discovered a lone duckling far from Mia's
nest. He was covered in mud and stranded in a little puddle. I noticed that something about him was not quite right, as his little head seemed permanently cocked to the side, his waddle was very unbalanced and often he began to go round and round in circles like a spinning top! I thought he may be blind, or perhaps brain damaged and that his mother had dumped him on purpose.  What would become of  this sweet little special-needs baby? I immediately thought of Tilly, would she take this little fellow as her own?
 

I placed the odd little creature next to her and she gently nudged him beneath her warm feather breast. That's good.... but was it unfair to give her a baby who may be sick and have no ducky future? I did my homework and learned of his condition, wry neck; common in baby ducks and curable with poultry vitamins, hurray!

 Because I don't know if ANY of Tilly's adopted eggs will hatch,  I kidnapped another baby from Mia to add to Mathilda's new family and be a nest mate to the "spinning duckling".

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 See his little head cocked to the side?

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Tilly doesn't mind.

 Now Tilly is the proud mother of two adorable ducklings... she will never know they are not her own goslings, nor will she care.

The little yellow duckling is the topsy-turvy baby, his new name is Hawkins, and he's been on poultry vitamins for 2 days now; I have seen improvement in his condition.  His nest mate is Aya, she helps him straighten out when he goes  all kattywompus.

 Mathilda is a patient and wonderful mother. I knew she would be.

It's a beautiful day!

P.S.I will have the drawing for the bird print next week, thanks to all who entered!