My Days As Mother Goose August 2021

Being a horseback rider, I recently answered a Facebook post from someone who was looking for an experienced horse sitter. We texted and then made plans to meet. 

Later on, I received a surprising text which said, “Are you ok with watching our geese too?”.  

What do I know about geese? Nothing. Well, I had once photographed a very cute goose at Old Bethpage Restoration Village. 

I agreed to watch the geese, after all, since we are all in a global pandemic, my schedule is pretty clear. It ended up being a once in a lifetime opportunity. 

When I arrived to meet the family and the pets, I expected a flock (or is it a gaggle?) of geese. However, there were just three young geese who needed care. 

They were domestic geese, who had been recently rescued. Two geese that looked exactly alike, and a smaller one, which was ball of feathers. No one knew their exact age, sex, or past history. 

The little one one was named Gooseberry. I preferred Berry Manilow.  Every time I admired him (or her), he would plop down on the ground to rest from being so cute. 

The other two geese were larger and more difficult to tell apart, so I called them Goose and Maverick (interchangeably), which I borrowed from the Top Gun movie. 

When I met them, the geese had just been relocated outdoors into a small wooden house, which was the size of a closet. Before this, they lived inside the owner’s bathtub. 

My goose-related chores (twice a day), involved letting them into their small enclosure and then out into a larger field. They celebrated by flapping their wings, exploring and eating grass. They also enjoyed resting and grooming their feathers. 

Whenever they heard me approaching to open their door, they started to make a happy, excited rustling noise. It was hard to open up the door and hook it, because they wished to come rushing out. The littlest goose would always end up separated from the other two in a corner and I would guide him out the door. 

Each visit, I provided fresh bedding, and refilled their water and feed.  I also ensured that they had access to grit, which resembles pulverized gravel, and aids their digestive process. 

They have a water bucket, with big holes cut in the side, so they could easily stick their long necks inside to reach the water. 

The geese were afraid if I was carrying the water bucket, pushing the wheelbarrow or holding the pitchfork, but stayed nearby me when I sat quietly in a lawn chair. I usually took pictures, read my newspaper or caught up on social media. 

At first I took their pictures from some distance, but quickly I warmed up to the geese. If there was a loud noise nearby, the geese would actually run toward me for protection. 

The geese surrounded me whenever I played back videos of them on my cell phone. When the geese heard themselves honking, they reacted by curiously tapping their beaks against my iphone. I am not sure the Verizon salesperson had this scenario in mind when I was buying my protective cover. 

It was very relaxing to watch them wandering and flapping around, similar to how you feel when observing fish swimming inside of an aquarium, but with big, triangular feet and lots of feathers.  

When It was time for me to head home, I would herd them into their enclosure and then usher them safely back into their house. Eventually I realized my new friends would just follow me back into their enclosure, so I just led them inside. 

I thought the geese would miss me when the job concluded, although I quickly realized that I missed them more.