We met this beautiful Goose while in a park in Texas. An older gentleman was sitting on a bench feeding this goose out of his hand! Most gees in parks would rather in groups and beg for handouts, but from a distance. This goose was so tame and dawdled over his snack like an old friend who wanted a chat and to hear the news.
A friend sent the following story. “I only had one set of grandparents, and they lived in the north of England, in Yorkshire. But they had a wonderful cottage with outhouses and a large garden. The cottage was called The Old Brewery because the outhouses had, long ago, housed just that, a brewery.
“Granny raised chickens and pigs, but as ‘pets’ she had two Chinese geese called Oliver & Julia. Geese mate for life so when Julia was killed by a fox, Oliver genuinely grieved. Granny felt so sorry for him she decided to stop clipping his wings and to also let him out of his enclosure so he could go off and find another mate if he wanted to. He didn’t. He decided to stay and make a nest by the back door behind the dustbins.
“There, he became a fearsome and ‘not to be messed with’ guard dog! As soon as he heard footsteps or wheels on the gravel drive, he would come SHRIEKING out from behind the dustbins. If you got too close, he would chase your heels to nip them. Honestly, as children, we were terrified of Ollie! We would wait to make a wide berth around him to get to the back door. (No one ever used the front door of The Old Brewery …)
“The other side of Ollie was so sweet. He could see his reflection in our cars’ bumpers, and I think he thought it was another goose and so he would sometimes croon to his reflection. He melted our hearts then, when he wasn’t chasing us!”