Our daughter has one goose in her flock of poultry. That is Tallulah the Toulouse Goose. She (our daughter, not the goose) mentioned a while ago that she wished Tallulah had a boyfriend so they could possibly produce some little goslings to thereby increase her goose population.
It just so happens that we have an extra gander, one wandering around with no name because he was supposed to end up on the Thanksgiving table. Fate, on behalf of said gander, intervened and he lived to see Christmas, Valentine's Day, a couple of family birthdays, Memorial Day . . . well, you get the idea. So we decided to send this handsome fellow to Swamp River Ridge to see if he and Tallulah would find true love.
Yesterday was his day of departure.
Here he is, strutting (waddling) around the poultry pasture, unaware of what was to befall him. Our daughter was to stop by on her way home from a town day to pick him up yesterday evening. Roy and I thought we would give a try at corralling him and having him ready in the transport cage when she arrived.
Roy got out an old, large fishing net . . . where (or why) we ever got a net that size I certainly don't remember. It was big enough to net a sturgeon. Or a goose. So out into the pasture we went. We put all the rest of the geese in their house and closed the door. It was late enough that all the chickens were already in bed for the night. That left Goosie -Gander outside alone for us to capture. He was having none of it. He went down to the pond, then up into the small patch of woods. Then a few fast circles around the goose house and back to the pond again. This went on for a while. I reminded the man with the fishing net to keep his sense of humor. It really was kinda funny, but we were wondering who was going to give up first. Us or Goosie -Gander. Finally, we cornered him and he went into the chicken's solarium where I could hold the top lid open and Roy could reach to even the farthest corner with the long-handled net. A couple of frantic, wing-flapping moments . . . and we had him.
Just as Roy lifted him out of the top of the solarium, the net ripped completely off the frame. Luckily the goose was tangled enough in the net that he didn't escape before Roy gathered the ends and unceremoniously carried the not happy goose to the waiting cage.
With slightly ruffled feathers, but none the worse for wear, he was ready for the pick-up by our daughter.
Here he's being loaded up for his very first truck ride. (Doesn't look too eager, does he?)
Securing the cage with cables so his cage doesn't bounce all over in the back of the truck.
We've had several reports today and the goose now known as "Shettie" (he's a Shetland goose) is seemingly very content in his new home surroundings although there have as of yet been no noticeable sparks flying between him and Tallulah. These things take time.
2 comments:
Best of luck to Shettie and Tallulah in their potentially amorous adventures! We have a lonely Guinea Cock here named "Toast" (short for "Dumb As Toast" for his propensity to nearly do himself in by the most unexpected methods). A volunteer at a local educational farm offered us a female guinea from the place--without telling us that she'd attempted to savage several young campers! Luckily, the guinea hen was never successfully captured, so we'll never know if she and Toast would have hit it off. Guineas mate for life and Toast already lost his life-mate to a fishercat two years ago. Maybe next year we'll get another batch of guineas and see if he finds a sweetie then. In the meantime, he has appointed himself guardian to the chickens. Good lad!
MaineCelt - Alas, poor Toast. Widowed and then no luck getting a mail order bride. Glad he has the chickens to hang with.
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