Here I am, just a few hours away from goose guardianship. Was it all that reminiscing about the baby shower goose egg that did it? No, it started way before that. I remember thinking how sweet Penelope looked at Chickenstock, following Mom 2em All's daughter around. But I wasn't really motivated to seriously consider geese then. Then I had a friend this year trying to get me to take some turkeys, which were Broad Breasted Whites, and that got me thinking about other types of fowl than chickens--but I knew I would want something a little more suited to well, normal existence than a BBW--I thought, maybe next spring I'll try letting my Sebright broody hatch out a couple Bourbon Red or Royal Palm turkeys... and then I went even further afield: geese? peafowl? guinea fowl? They were all dreamed of in turn.
Then Mom2 had the run-in with the city inspector, and I could not get those three geese out of my mind. We have the room, we have the zoning, any of the neighbors who might be annoyed totally deserve to be annoyed if they think they have any right to complain. (The houses on the road are quite spread out, mostly they are 10 acre lots, and all zoned agricultural, my attitude is if you can't stand the sound of power boats, don't buy lakefront property
). I started to picture those geese here. But I thought, oh, someone else will certainly take them from the Michigan thread, someone maybe closer to Mom2 so she and her family could visit more easily, or someone who knows something about geese since I'm such a novice. And I know KrisRose was willing to take them. But I sent Mom2 a message describing what we had here and offering to be an option. 'Cause honestly I was falling in love with them long-distance.
Now tomorrow they will be here. I know Kim is very very sad to lose them. I have gone back and read the original thread that described how she got Henry as an orphaned and abandoned gosling. Then the parts of the Michigan thread where she got Penelope from KrisRose at Chickenstock and then the homeless guy got her to rescue Libby. I remember being amazed at that story--how the homeless guy, improbably doing a good deed by trying to help a goose, managed to find maybe the one person in thousands who could and would save that goose. Gave me, as the saying goes, goosebumps! Maybe these geese have special fairy goosemothers looking out for them. Gee, I hope so, because I could use the help, I'm sure, as I figure this whole goose thing out as I go. Of course, I have the BYC brain trust, especially this Michigan thread, to consult.
As excited as I am to start getting to know the goosers, I know this is a hard, hard thing for Kim to do. I promise to love them and spoil them and have long goosey conversations with them and try to understand them. But as she has told me, "geese are elephants--they never forget'--in the context of "show them that you are the bigger goose but don't overdo it or they will always be afraid of you"... So I know Henry, Penelope, and Libby will never forget you or your family, Kim. If they can eventually come to think of me fondly as "Mrs. Food! Mrs. Food!" as the chickens do, I will be very happy.
Yeah, Mom2, I match your novel and raise you some blather! (I do not expect an award for it though... I think you got that award for a little more than length of posts.
).
And just maybe next spring I can start a little cottage industry decorating goose eggs for baby showers. I'm pretty sure there's gotta be a demand for that.