Tuesday 28^th I found this in my pocket today:-

I nearly gave it to Rach to put her chuddy in. It’s a good job I read it first! Bella Jameson did it in Art I think. I must have grabbed it off her before someone else did.

I had a shock (but a nice one) when Dad came back from walking Mollie. He was stood by the front door with his hands cupped against his chest. I could hear a bird but thought it was something outside. Whatever was cheeping was really close so I went over to Dad and he opened his hands to reveal a tiny duckling.

He said it had been wandering about the lane on its own and Mollie had it in her mouth. It was okay so he waited round to see if he could see the mother but he couldn’t so he came home with it in his pocket. It’s lovely and flutters about everywhere.

I love ducks. I used to have one called Squeak from a duckling when I was younger but she flew away. [See note at the end of this post regarding Squeak ‘flying away’.] She thought I was her mother.

It’s a bit different with this one though coz we have a dog and a cat now which makes it a bit difficult. It’ll have to stay overnight and Mum’ll take it to her school tomorrow coz one of the kid’s parents has a farm.

[Er, yeah… Squeak didn’t fly away. I’d reached the age of about 18 in blissful ignorance and then my Mum told me the cold, hard truth. We were having a lovely walk by the river near our house. I admired the ducks swimming about and mused out loud, “I wonder if any of them are Squeak’s grandchildren”.

“Oh God, did we never tell you?!”

No. No they hadn’t told me. Tragedy struck while we were on holiday one summer. Squeak thought she was human and decided to pop over the road for a chat to one of the neighbours. She failed to stop, look and listen and ‘flew away’ straight in front of a lorry.

I cried. A lot. I loved her! She spent years following me round the garden and happily cheeping away under my jumper in the house. She cleared the veg patch of slugs (of which her favourites were the beer-soaked ones in the dishes under the beans). She entertained my friends. She scared my sister off. She’s the reason I’m still able to resist the temptation of crispy shredded duck at a Chinese buffet. 

Oh, I’m going to have to go and have a little cry now.

Bye!]