Mal was found in the garden, unhatched, and incubated by a black chicken. She1 came later than the rest, towards the end of the summer, once they had already fledged and left the hen house. It was clear she was a mallard, not a muscovy, and with that the decision was made. A week later she was standing in our kitchen, peeping and looking around curiously, the hen house replaced with a Japanese apartment. We nervously welcomed her, like new parents, attempting to erase the chicken imprint and raise her with an affinity towards people (or at least us).
Mal loved the camera from day one.
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- For the first four months or so we thought she was a he, and the pronoun change took some adjustment. [↩]