Another Dogless Dogs on Thursday

It's Thursday again, which means Dogs on Thursday, but here I am without a doggie post. That's just not right! Especially since I've been feeling like crap all week because of the baby geese, and my sweet, funny dogs are the main reason I have managed to get out of bed every morning.

So what is the reason for another dogless post? Geese. Or more specifically, one goose. Have you seen this goose?
At first glance it looks like every other goose in the lake at work, but he swims kind of funny, and when I saw him out of the water yesterday, he was hopping on one foot. His right foot looks like it was bitten by a turtle or something. (Warning: Don't read the next sentence if you are eating right now.) The foot is all mangled and there are bloody bits hanging from it. (Hey, I warned you!)
I normally don't scrutinize the geese at work, but I've been looking for the last remaining baby from the geese on our roof. No luck. Can't find him anywhere. Anyway, I called our office manager when I saw the hurt goose, and she called a local wildlife sanctuary/rehab place, and they said that if I could catch the goose, they would pick it up and care for it.

No problem! With my sister's help, I developed a plan of action for catching the goose, and assembled the necessary supplies:

Yes, coffee is a necessary supply. The only thing missing in this picture is the goose. He is nowhere to be found. I took several drives around the grounds today, saw him in the water one time, but my net wouldn't reach him. I really need to get him on land so I can catch him. Until I find him, I'll be wandering around the grounds several times a day, calling "Heeeere, Goosey, Goosey!" No, I don't feel like an idiot, why do you ask? OK, I do feel like an idiot, but that's not going to stop me from trying to find that damn goose.

Down to One...

I went to work bright and early this morning and headed right into the courtyard of the museum to check on the four remaining baby geese. Unfortunately, the first thing I saw was a dead baby goose. I can't tell you how that made me feel. The babies were fine the night before! They had plenty of food and water, and it was a warm night. After looking around, I found another dead baby. The mama and daddy geese were settled down in a flower bed with a live baby between them, but I looked everywhere and couldn't find the last baby, dead or alive. I couldn't believe we went from 5 babies down to 1 baby in 24 hours. How is that possible? I was shocked.

The first thing to do, of course, was to sit down and have a good cry, and then I buried the dead babies. I marked the graves with pieces of glass cullet so that no one accidentally digs them up when putting in spring flowers.

After that, it was time for another good cry, and then something had to be done. I figured the remaining baby would have as good a chance, if not better, for survival in his natural habitat as opposed to staying another day in the courtyard-of-death. The only problem with that is that the only way out of the courtyard into the outside world is through the museum. The shortest distance is around 75 feet through the museum's lobby.

At this point I realized I needed help, so called the administration building for reinforcements. Jimmy, Steph and Tara (the only other people at work that early) came to the rescue. After much discussion, we decided we had to catch the remaining baby and hope the mama and daddy would either fly over the wall or follow us through the museum to an outside door.

No problem, as Canada Geese are notoriously docile creatures, right? WRONG! They can be mean SOBs, especially when they are threatened. Well, since no one else volunteered, and I like to think I have developed a rapport with the geese over the past few weeks of checking on them daily on our roof, it was up to me to catch the baby. There was much hissing and flapping of wings, but it was surprisingly easy to corner the baby and pick him up.

At this point, I had the presence of mind to ask Steph or Tara to take some photos. Here I am holding the baby, trying to coax the mama and daddy into the museum. That's Jimmy holding the door. Well, he's either holding the door or hiding behind it, I'm not sure which.

Mama and daddy were not about to go peacefully into the museum...... so I handed the baby over to Jimmy after much kissing and telling him what a good boy he is. The baby goose, that is, not Jimmy.

Jimmy headed through the museum, and I shooed the mama and daddy in. At one point I was asking myself if this was really such a good idea. I mean, those geese could have taken off flying all over the museum, crashing into all kinds of things. Fortunately, they just followed Jimmy and the baby and the sounds of his peeping. Again, the baby goose, not Jimmy. :-)

I know what some of you are thinking, and yes, the geese did indeed poo on the carpet. Big deal. Goose poo is good for the carpet, right? Anyway, the geese made it out the front door and were reunited with their baby out in the big (bad) world. I followed them with my camera to make sure the baby was doing OK. I knew they would head toward the lake.

It was a long walk for the baby....
...a very long walk...
...in which the baby needed several rest stops...
...but they eventually made it to the lake.

The sweet little baby never hesitated - he just walked right into the lake and started swimming.

Goodbye baby goose.
Come back and visit some time.

Goose Update

I worked yesterday, so was able to keep an eye on the baby geese on the roof. It's a good thing, because it was hot, hot, HOT! Throughout the course of the day, I carried a little over 12 gallons of water up to the roof. Here are a couple of videos I took yesterday.






Today was very sad, though. My sister and I drove down to work a little after noon, and apparently sometime during the night the goose family decided to vacate the roof. A smart goose would herd their babies to the outside of the museum, where they would (hopefully) have their fall broken by a tree or shrub, and then land on a nice soft pile of leaves or pine needles. Of course, if the goose was smart, she wouldn't have built a nest on the roof at all.

No siree, no smart geese around here. These crazy geese must have herded/pushed the babies off the roof into the interior courtyard of the museum. No cushy piles of leaves to land on---just bricks. Very hard bricks. Sadly, one of the babies did not survive, and another one is limping. It's a miracle that the other three seem to have landed without trouble. We buried the baby under a clematis vine.

After some discussion, we decided to leave the little family in the courtyard for now, especially since one of the babes is limping. I'll keep an eye on them, and if it seems as though the babies would be OK out on the lake, I'll move them. Somehow. I'm not sure how to do it. The only access to the courtyard is through the museum. I guess we will have to catch the babies (easier said than done!) and take them out. Hopefully the mama and daddy geese will be able to fly over the walls of the courtyard. Don't geese start molting soon? If they don't go over the wall, we'll just have to catch them, too.

Do I sound confident? I'm not...

Babies! We Have Babies!!!

Five baby geese! They hatched on Thursday! I checked on the mama Thursday morning, and she was still sitting on the nest. I went up to the roof again after lunch, and found mama and daddy goose, and five babies!
I made a frantic phone call for help to our office manager. I don't know what I expected, but certainly nothing less than the Coast Guard flying in with their rescue helicopters and those baskets they lower into the ocean to pluck people out of the Bering Sea like they do on Deadliest Catch, right? They could swoop in and load this little family into the basket and whisk them off to safety--somewhere that is NOT on top of a 2 story roof!

That didn't happen. After the office manager consulted with our grounds manager, they decided that I might be over reacting just a bit. Both of them said the mama and daddy goose know what they are doing, and that they would probably have their babies off the roof by morning.

Reluctantly, I went home Thursday evening, but if I didn't have to go to a funeral that evening, I might have stayed on the roof all night! Friday morning, I was back at work and went right up onto the roof of the museum, hoping to find the little family had vacated the premises.

No such luck.
After another frantic call to the office manager, in which there was much laughing on her part, I decided I was pretty much alone in my quest to take care of this little family. No problem. I made several trips to the roof with buckets of water and made some nice puddles in low areas of the roof. Next I pulled up some nice, tasty shoots of grass and took a couple of buckets full of that to the roof.

Then, I called in some people I can always count on...my sister and my niece! There was no laughter...only "What can we do to help?" Isn't that great? Within an hour they arrived...with provisions.
They brought a chicken feeder, a big waterer (not pictured) and bags of chick food and poultry food! My heroes! Here is Jenny on the roof. Yes, they even climbed the two flights up to the roof to see the little family!
I am still taking up buckets of water for puddles, and grass for some fresh food, but I feel so much better knowing they have a supply of food and water on the roof.

It's hard to tell from this picture, bu the babies are all sitting in the food!
Fortunately, I have to work today, so I can check on them throughout the day, and if they are still there on Sunday, I'll be riding down to work to replenish their puddles then, too. I may be the subject of laughter at work, and some might be wondering about my mental state, but nothing is going to happen to those babies on my watch!