Made the cage all set up for my pet goose this morning and brought him in. I have had him since '94 and he had to be 2 years old then at least and with the years he is just to old now to stay outside during winter. He has a new chicken coop that is insulated but it is still to cold for him. Plus I always felt guilty with him spending winters in his house all alone. I would go out and spend time playing with him but I still felt guilty leaving to come in the house. I had ducks when he came but they have all gone to duck heaven. This will be his 4th winter inside. First time he was not happy at all but now he is in goose happyland. If it is warm enough I let him outside in the afternoon to walk around and flap his wings and then I open the cellar door, call him and he happily walks back into his cage. Sure is funny to hear his feet hit the cement floor when he walks. I am sure he is very happy because on cold days when I have to make him go out so I can clean his cage I have to fight with him to stay out of the cage and get the cage back in the cellar before him. He will walk behind me following me back into the cellar. Sure wish I could take a picture of it. I have had him so long I swear I understand what he says when he honks and he understands me. Or I'm just looney in the head. He also likes to play with socks. Yes, I said socks. Not sure why but I hang 3 socks in his cage for him to play with and he is happy pulling on them. Even have pictures of it. I also will play tug of war with him with the socks. Sometimes I wonder if he knows he is a goose and not a dog? My cat Nermal is not to happy at the moment. They share the cellar for bed time but it seems Nermal misses him by the spring when I put him back outside. At least with him in the cellar during the winter I don't go to bed worrying about him or when the winter winds are blowing I wonder if he is warm enough. Now the only problem during the night is he honks and honks and honks. They say they make good watch "dogs" and they sure do. Not sure why or what he is honking about but maybe he is a night goose because he sleeps during the day. I am sure getting ready to keep me up honking all night. Wish I could bring in all the animals. If I ever win the lottery I want to build an animal rescue safe place for them. Any animal will be welcomed.
Aw, I understand the guilty feeling of not spending time with your goose outside when it's cold. My goose Keld seems happy enough, though, but he really likes it when I take him for walks. He plays with my cats and greets everyone who walks by. A lot of my neighbors bring him weeds, and he loves that. Keld is outside during the whole day, but he comes in at night. Inside the house he wears a diaper harness with half a disposable diaper in it. He also honks a lot - until I put him on the bed. Then he chirps happily and settles in front of my pillow and waits for me to come sleep. About every hour or two he starts honking again - it means he wants me to take him down on the floor, so he can go have something to eat and drink, or it means that his diaper needs changing. When he has eaten he goes to the bed and starts honking again, so I can put him back on it. He could easily jump up on the bed by himself, but he doesn't know that. He only did it once, and that was because the evil vacuumer scared him. When I go to sleep, he sleeps all night next to my pillow, and he usually sits quiet and waits for me to wake up. Once he sees I'm awake he'll start honking again for me to take him down from the bed and let him out. If I pretend to sleep, he starts yanking my hair, and if I don't let him out immediately, he honks constantly and chews on everything that he isn't supposed to chew - really acting up. As soon as he is outside, he starts running around, flapping his wings and screaming at the top of his lungs. I'm not really a morning person, but his enthusiasm is contagious! Then he goes to the pond for his morning bath - he didn't want to use the big new pond, but I put his kiddie pool inside the pond, so now at least technically he's using it.
I have three pet geese that come in the house at night to sleep with Mom They sleep in a large "baby jail" from Walmart with peewee pads on the floor, a little food and a bucket of water. I have old linoelum over cement so I don't worry about water, just clean it all up in the morning. I don't know if they come inside for themselves or for me. I probably couldn't sleep if they weren't in with me at night. Nope, I couldn't sleep at all. I guess that answers that
My geese all live outside and a few days back we had a 65 day and it was sunny and when I walked down by them sitting in front of there 3 sided shed there were some with there mouth open they were so warm. I could not imagine a full grown goose in the house! I have had TONS of yound chicks, ducks, geese, baby goats but never a full grown goose. I am sure he LOVES you for making his life a little easier during his older age. HUGS to you for taking great care of him.
Our Jack plays out all day every day with his friends Nipper the Goose and Snap, crackle, Pop and Shreddie the runner ducks but he comes in every night, sits in front of the fire, or on the sofa between us and during the winter sleeps on the bed between us, like The goose girls, Keld, Jack also wears a diaper harness and wakes us up when it needs changing, other than that he sleeps tight between us!!! Jack definitely thinks he's human, not a goose and we talk to each other and understand!!! By the fire! I'm trying to sleep here!!! Love you Dad!! Time for a snack! What??!!! Food on my face??? Not me!!!
he comes in every night, sits in front of the fire, or on the sofa between us and during the winter sleeps on the bed between us Yay, I knew I wasn't the only one! Thank you so much for sharing! Most people think I'm trying - not very successfully - to tell them some kind of joke when I tell them about Keld. Then they think I'm kidding. And finally, when they realize I'm serious, they start looking around as if to localize my guardian or my nurse - clearly I must have one...
