A baby duckling with fluffy yellow feathers being held outdoors on a sunny day, surrounded by green grass. 5:48
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Sunny the crested duck goes on a blind date

Sarah walked into a Tractor Supply store and spotted a duckling in a corner all by himself. He had a little puff of feathers on his head, and she couldn't leave without him. more

She already had a whole flock of ducklings at home. Ducklings usually huddle together, but this group always left the new one out. He stood alone in a corner, and for two weeks he didn't grow at all.

Then he started to sound wheezy, and one eye kept watering. The vet found an upper respiratory infection. After two weeks of antibiotics by mouth, he finally began to grow like the others. The puff on his head turned out to be a crest, caused by a genetic mutation.

Sarah named him Sunny, because he's a little ray of sunshine to everyone who meets him. She tucked him into her shirt for naps and took him everywhere. Later the family learned he is completely blind in his left eye. He has some sight in his right eye, so he tilts his head to see.

He ran into things and swam in circles. But being blind on one side has an upside. Most ducks run when a hand reaches for them, and Sunny never sees it coming, so he doesn't mind being picked up. When he wanders around and bumps into Sarah, he finds her hand or her leg, rests his head on it and falls asleep.

A small yellow duckling with his eyes closed rests his head on a person's hand. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
When Sunny bumps into Sarah, he rests his head on her hand and falls asleep.

The family's cats and dogs seem to know he is special. They can tell he is no threat, so they let him eat their food and do his thing. When a cat ends up between Sunny and his water, he hears, "You can't get to your water, Sunny. There's a cat in the way."

Most of the time he lives indoors. When the family comes down in the morning and says good morning, Sunny starts turning in circles. He knows his name and looks around for whoever calls it. He's close to Sarah's husband, too, and to their kids, who are six and eight.

A duck with a fluffy white crest stands upright on a wooden surface beside a door frame. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
Sunny spends most of his time indoors with the family.

He goes outside only with someone watching, and he never seems at ease around other ducks. He likes people, and he even comes along on family vacations. The vet is sure he wouldn't be alive today without the special care he gets.

Out in public, people often think he isn't real. At a trunk-or-treat, kids came by, and when he blinked they asked, "Is he real? I thought he was a stuffed animal." He barely made a sound until the family put baby toys in his pen. He took to them right away, and now he has his own playing sound.

A baby duckling with fluffy yellow feathers being held outdoors on a sunny day, surrounded by green grass. The headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
Sarah walked into a Tractor Supply store and spotted a duckling in a corner all by himself.

Then it turned out that another duck a lot like Sunny lives just 20 minutes away, and the grown-ups joked about setting them up on a blind date. Their first date was at a farmers market. The two walked around together, kept missing each other and ended up going in a circle.