Give Geese a Chance

Our introduction to Canada geese came over the Memorial Day weekend of 1998.

A little girl found two geese that were abandoned. Either the parents were dead, or the building construction in the area had separated them. Her parents could not raise them, and since our home is the repository for lost animals, they asked us to take care of them. Thus began an adventure from which none in our family, and many of our friends, will ever view Canada Geese in the same light again.

The two goslings were only a couple of days old.

At first we raised them in a box in our house, letting them swim in the bathtub for their daily exercise. Later, as they grew bigger, we took them to an outside room, and each day one of us would take them swimming in our swimming pool. We swam with them, encouraged them to fly, showed them where dandelions were, and grew to bond with them and they with us.

We raised them to fly away.

We knew our setting was not natural. When they took off to join their own on Good Friday, there were many tears shed. We could not cry because they left, but the empty spaces in our hearts hurt just the same, and so the tears came. They are our children and each night we search the sky for the flocks that cross over.

We also are grateful that for 9 months we were accompanied by two mystical, wonderful creatures. When we see geese along the Columbia, we know they are part of our "extended" family.