Adopted by geese, befriended by ducks... : )

lovedbygeese said:

In memory of Il se...

Well...I gave myself a day to write--mostly to stop shaking so hard and sobbing and to start calling my friends in bird rescue for both ideas and to see if anyone reported a body or body parts. I now only have three gander brothers. Someone or something killed the first one I ever met. I called him "Il se" but his full name meant "He remembers me" in French b/c he was the first I'd met at the park, and the next day he introduced me to his then 5 or 6 (at the time) brothers and sisters and remembered me faithfully and warmly ever since. Two of those brothers or sisters were lost quickly in the first year I knew the family. To begin with I've been told that there had been a flock of 9 (not 8) and now there's only 3---reduced to so few in maybe only 6 or so years. So my boy has rejoined his flock, now. Il se and I were as close as a human and a goose could be. I've always told him and his brothers that if I died tomorrow and there was no god, only geese, I'd be in heaven. I just never expected one to go so soon and definitely not my Il se.

I went to the park the day before yesterday to visit my boys after recovering from throat surgery and discovered him missing. You could kind of tell from the behavior of his brothers that he wasn't just missing, but likely killed by either a human or animal predator (as one had killed another bird in the same area the night before surgery.) I walked every inch of that park yesterday. Not even a bill or a skull remain. It looks like whoever it was claimed my boy and a chicken in the taking. The park has drained nearly all the water from their man-made lakes to sell the water, allowing the ground to become parched, with only a small margin of water allowed in one small spot on two distant "lakes" (grass had grown up to 10 in high in others.) What cover was there for the birds has been harshly clear-cut, leaving them few places to go. My boys aren't flyers, they'll sooner swim or walk and the next nearest body of water isn't near enough to run to should they have needed to escape.

Now Il se's brothers have had to move to the only body of water large enough that they can swim out to the middle of it for safety. The only "lake" maintained b/c it's a revenue lake--kept open and fully stocked for fishermen. They're scared to death there and the "lake's" heavily populated by fishermen and people who let their dogs flush the birds. It's where the majority of birds have had to move, though, incl. the newest addition, a Toulouse. This "preserve" that prides itself on it's birds is killing them by denying them water and clear-cutting. In Il se's memory, I'm more dedicated to the cause of making sure those birds are protected/provided for so no others should have to be lost.

He wasn't just mine, but I loved him.

I've attached a pic of him---not my favorite : )---where he stands with his brothers on the "lake" where they brothers have been driven to. Is se's the one in the back with grey flecks. I'll get better pictures up later.

Click to expand...