i wrote about the goose, who is now our goose and kevin named him Gus, on may 28th. he had a family, with a wife and four little goslings, and he had a horrible limp.
since then, the wife and babies haven’t been around so much, but gus continues to show up nearly every day, limping over to the pile of bird food we put out for him, and the big roaster pan full of water.
he’s not getting any better, and i’ve seen his leg up close – it looks like there’s a huge gash along the top of his foot, and it looks all oozy and painful and bad.
sometimes gus is alone, but most time, there are a couple or three annoying ducks that want to gobble up all gus’s food, and drink his water, and sometimes the dumb ducks stand around in the water! so they think it’s a foot bath as well as a drinking fountain. THIS IS NOT ROME, DUCKS!
and lots of times there are also a bunch of other geese around, anywhere from just a few to about 15 or so, and they, too, want to eat up all the food, although sometimes they just lie around the yard. kevin says it’s gus’s posse, but if that’s true, they’re not very loyal and true.
yesterday morning i spent a lot of time trying to scare away the three dumb ducks and the other geese, without bothering gus. it’s kind of a pointless job, really.
it rained in the afternoon and when it stopped, gus was sitting there under the tree, all alone, so i brough him more food and water and he was happy.
well, i assume he was happy. he didn’t actually acknowledge his happiness, he just hissed at me as usual when i brought him his food.
last night i went down to the dock and i wish i’d brought my camera, because the sky was beautiful. all the boats had long been scared away because of all the storms, and it was quiet and peaceful…and then, i heard some rustling in the garden under the sycamore tree, and there was Gus, painfully hobbling down to the water.
he finally made it down the rocks and kind of plopped down, and then started to slowly swim down the shoreline. it was heartbreaking, as he slowly bobbed along, clearly out of balance in the water because of his injured foot. i though he might be headed for the sandy beach on the other side of amy and jim’s property, but it’s under water, and i saw him continue down past the next neighbor’s, and the next. and then i didn’t see him anymore, and i wanted to run down the lane to see if i could find him, but it was pretty dark at this point, and i figured there was really nothing i could do anyway.
i just got so very sad watching him bobble away, all by himself. it seems that this summer, everything has a heightened sadness to it because of dad and mollie.
i came up to the house and tried to see if there are any wildlife rescue place around, because it seems to me that a vet could quickly get gus into good shape, with some antibiotic ointment and maybe some stitches and some bangages.
i found a couple of place that i can call, but it doesn’t look really promising. if he was an owl or a raptor, it’d be easier.
he hasn’t showed up this morning, but when he does, i’ll take a picture of him. he just looks like any goose when he’s lying down next to his food, and a couple of times i’ve been fooled by imposter geese who i thought were gus but were just a bunch of freeloaders.
a view from the boat of our beautiful blooming lilies. last year the deer at them all before they even bloomed. it’s so blurry because the water was kind of choppy.
i have much more i want to write about, but after the rain we got a little break from the heat and humidity and it’s still kind of cool and lovely outside, so we’re going to take a bike ride.
later, when it’s hot and humid and probably raining again, i’ll write more.
ok then,
mrs. sunday hughes.