Cuteness fix

By popular request, I offer you DUCKLINGS.

I am in the middle of transferring files from my old iMac to my new iMac. A few minutes ago, the computer was claiming this process would take 94 hours over the ethernet cable. Now, yes, my old harddrive is completely full, but still.

Okay, wait, I just checked. Now we're down to eight hours.

Anyway, back to ducklings. Yesterday I went out and found one baby sitting by herself under the upturned milkcrate I keep in their little run (so I can sit on it to watch them!) Mama and the siblings were inside the duckhouse. When I went to retrieve the loner, I realized she was having seizures! Her head kept twitching to one side, and when I put her on the ground she could only propel herself backwards in circles. She was clearly upset and peeping in an anxious way. I took her in the house while Gordon Googled "duckling seizures."

Well, apparently waterfowl just love having seizures for all sorts of reasons. Our duckling didn't have any visible injuries, so I wondered if she was dehydrated and/or overheated from being outside alone. It was quite hot yesterday, although baby was in a shady spot two feet from a waterer! 

So we tried giving her sugar water as per internet suggestions and voilà, the duckling quickly returned to her normal. I took her back to Mama and she had along nap. Later that day she was getting around fine, and today she seems back to normal. Meanwhile, Gordon and I were both about to have heart attacks thinking the duckling was going to die.

We've named her Twitchy, sort of in honour of our recently-departed duck Squishy (so named after Gordon stepped on him as a duckling.)

I'm hoping Twitchy is done with the seizures, because this stuff just kills me!

More ducklings soon.