"I'm best friends with my pet DUCK - who is scared of the rain"

Meet the mum who is best friends with a rain-fearing DUCK she hatched from - a Morrisons egg.

Chloe Greenwood, 35, bought a six pack of free range eggs from the supermarket and put them in an incubator.

She had a hunch one egg might be fertilised - which proved to be correct.

Buddy was then born nine months ago - and the pair are now inseparable.

Chloe, a former care worker from St Austell, Cornwall, said: "She's absolutely wonderful - she's one of the family.

"We all love her so much."

The bird - which Chloe thought was born a boy, but is actually a girl - loves being with the family and playing with toys.

She also goes out for walks with the dogs.

But, ironically, Buddy hasn't taken like a duck to water - and is scared of the rain.

Chloe said: "She's so sociable. She goes to greet the postman every day

"One of the loveliest things is when she stands on one leg with her head resting on the sofa and falls asleep.

"She likes watching ducks on YouTube. And we play a game where she chases my finger along the sofa.

"She needs lots of attention, but she's also happy to sit on the sofa and chill with me.

"She doesn't like the rain, which is funny for a duck."

Buddy is let out with cockapoos Tilly and Lexi every morning and comes in again each night for her dinner.

She plays in the doggie paddling pool and roams free in the half-acre garden - before tapping on the window if she's ready to come in.

Buddy hovers around her owner when she's cooking, occasionally pecking at her feet or the bottoms of her trousers if it's time for a tasty treat of blueberries, peas or veg ends.

And when Chloe feeds the dogs the duck won't be left out - trying to muscle her way in to grab a mouthful.

Chloe, mum to Aidan, 11, hatched Buddy in early September after buying £2 Clarence Court Braddock Whites eggs from her local Morrisons in August.

She wanted to hatch one after she saw a similar video on social media, and friends bought her an incubator for a birthday.

Buddy learned her name within four months, and she taught Chloe special quacks.

Chloe said: "If she's quacking really rapidly and bobbing her head that means she's hungry, but if she's doing a lower-pitched quack and stooping down she wants to go out."

Buddy lived in a little plastic box with a heat mat for six weeks after she hatched, then slept in Chloe's room.

But at four months she became noisy at night because she began nesting so Chloe popped her little bed just outside the door.

Chloe said: "When she was very little she followed me everywhere: if I got up to leave the room she'd be running so fast to keep up.

"I was determined to hatch-out an egg, I love animals so much.

"She fluffed up within hours of being born, and she was just a few inches big.

"It was so lovely watching her snuggle up to her beanie-baby chick from day one.

"It's been the most incredible experience.

"I'm put off supermarket eggs now, because it was so lovely watching the whole incubation process - it would just feel weird and wrong for me to eat them now.