Hot Sauce & Moby Duck… Sounds like a couple of characters from a spoof detective series!
No, this is the story of Moby a wild mallard abandoned by its mother and how a Hot Sauce got its name.
It was Maundy Thursday when I got a phone call from Kit. She was on her way back from picking MissT up from a GCSE revision class.
“Can you get the dogs out the way and get a box ready for when we get in? We’ve rescued a duckling”
Most people would probably be “WTF!” my answer was “OK”
You see, we’re not the typical household, this is the type of thing that just happens!
So, Kit and MissT arrive, and we get the newly acquired duckling settled in an old unused hamster cage.
A quick google on ‘what do ducklings eat’ which, fortunately we had most of what we needed, and the duckling seemed quite settled.
And of course, it needed a name…
Moby… Of course, not Moby Dick but Moby Duck!
To be honest, I didn’t think the tiny ball of fluff would survive the night.
The next day though I was relieved to see that my fears were unfounded. Moby was active and hungry. Turned out it’s favourite thing to eat was boiled egg!
So, there we have it. Looked like we had a duck! Moby Duck!
Moby continued to eat well and grow incredibly fast.
He would have a daily swim… in the sink! And we got him used to going outside to explore.
At some point, as Moby’s downy feathers were replaced with grown up plumage, we realised. Moby was looking less ‘He’ and more ‘She’. Oops! Oh well, we couldn’t change the name now!
As time went on and Moby grew, it was time for him, sorry, her to move outside.
We knew there was a chance that eventually Moby would make a bid for freedom. And that was fine. She was a wild duck after all.
Sure enough a few weeks later, she disappeared. Not a sign of her.
We thought that perhaps she would come back in the evening to roost. She didn’t.
After two days we thought that was it. She’s gone, hoping she was safe and found some of her own kind.
It was on day four of her leaving that I got a message from my sister who had seen a post on a pets lost and found page on social media.
A lady had posted about a duck she had taken in, concerned about its safety. She had presumed it was a pet as it seemed too friendly. And it kept following her and her 40 odd Kg dog into the house!
A few photos shared through messages, and we realised yes, that was Moby!
Turns out he had made it to the gates of a local school, about half a mile away!
The lady had taken it as she was concerned the kids from the school would start throwing stones at it or do something else nasty to it!
So off we went to bring Moby back home.
We then made the decision that for Moby’s own safety we were going to have to clip her wings.
So, we have a duck again.
But she will get lonely by herself, right?
Best find her some friends then.
We figured the best way would be to get some eggs and try and hatch them ourselves.
It took two attempts but with the second batch of eggs we had success!
Two new fluffy ducklings!
We had gone for Welsh Harlequin ducks. As they were originally bred from Mallards, had a docile and friendly temperament, they seemed to be the best match for Moby.
It just so happens that the day the first chick hatched I had made a batch of a new hot sauce.
I was really struggling for a name, but I looked through to where the newly hatched duckling was and I thought, why not?
There you have it. That’s how Harlequin Quacking Hot Sauce got its name!
The Hot Sauce is available to buy on our online shop at www.omemade.co.uk
Moby has her own Facebook Moby Duck page if you want to follow her and her friends.
I’m sure there will be some updates on the Blog in the future too.