A couple who reared an orphan duckling before setting her free were stunned when she returned six months later with 11 chicks.
Phil Garner, 67, found the shivering day-old mallard abandoned at a fishing lake and took her home in his coat pocket.
He and wife Julia, 66, took turns sleeping by the “demanding” orphan’s bed while feeding her on a £40 diet of grubs
They named her Freda, partially potty trained her and wiped away a tear when she flew the nest in October after 18 months at the three-bed home.
But that was not quite the end of the story... Freda re-appeared on their doorstep in April with a male friend, closely followed by a brood of ducklings.
Surveying the family happily at home in his garden, ex-train driver Phil said: “Going from one duckling to 11 was chaos.
“They’re now eight inches long fat as butter and fluffy, very fluffy.
“They need to swim, they need to wash themselves. So we’ve got tubs everywhere. The garden looks like a bomb site, but I’m not bothered.
“It was a bit sad when Freda first went but at the same time, it was a bit of a relief because she was hard work, very demanding. It was a double-edged sword.
“But in the back of my mind, I was expecting her to come back because we were told that they imprint on you for life.”
Julia said her husband of 16 years was being treated for bladder cancer when he found Freda and she now considers the bird his guardian angel as he was able to focus on caring for her during that difficult period.
She said: “I wasn’t right keen on my home becoming a duck sanctuary at first, but we all adapt... Phil had three operations for cancer and 15 follow-ups. It’s been a tough time for him, and in some ways, Freda helped him through it.
“So she was like his guardian angel. I think she was sent for a purpose.”
Phil said he’d been fishing with his son close to their home when the tiny duck first scuttled up towards them.
They tried for hours to find her parents before the grandad of seven took her home after the fishery manager said she would perish if left in the wild.
Phil said: “It was freezing cold that day and there was no sign of the mum.
“The bloke said: ‘If you leave her here, she’s going to die’. So we brought her home and we thought, ‘What do you do with a day-old duckling?’
They allowed her to swim in a fibreglass pond they’d bought for goldfish.
Phil said: “She’d either sleep in a box, by your feet or under the coffee table.
“But one of us had to sleep downstairs otherwise she started screeching and crying. We house-trained her to use towels.
“She would sit on my shoulder and on my table while I was doing my computer work. She was that loving.”
Phil expects the ducks to stay with them for a few more months but is prepared to rehome them on a nearby pond if they don’t go back into the wild.
