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How many are your works, Lord! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures geese (Psalm 104:24, OGV [Old Guy Version]).
I have a love-hate relationship with geese.
I ride my bike in several areas where geese cross the bike path, leaving droppings that I swerve to avoid. Since I ride a bike without fenders, it’s no fun on an early morning ride getting a face full of goose poop.
Earlier this year, I was riding alongside a stream at 18 mph when I noticed two geese in the river. They saw me, elevated in the goose manner of seemingly running on water, until they could flap their wings, and then flew toward me.
One veered away, but the other came straight at me as I lowered my head (grateful for a helmet) and hit the goose with my helmet in its stomach. It flew off with angry hissing, and I somehow stayed upright on my bike.
As I said, a love-hate relationship, and considering this recent flopping as one of many that I’ve endured over the years while riding my bike, I would be justified in having a deep resentment against all things geese.
On Father’s Day, my wife and I were walking along a path by a pond. We looked ahead and saw an angry goose mom and pop duo flopping, hissing, and running back and forth from the path to the edges of the pond while three startled goslings huddled nearby.
As we approached, the adult geese started hissing at us, and my wife noticed a lone gosling from the geese family still in the water. She gave me a stick, and I tried to help the gosling up the slope to the path, but I noticed that it was stuck.
Then I saw that multiple loops of fishing string were wrapped around its body, legs, and one of its wings. The little bird was tired, and its head began to loll to one side and sink under the water.
My wife said, “Can we do something?”
By “us,” I knew she meant “me,” so I reached down the bank, grabbed the gosling, and lifted it with the string out of the water. Meanwhile, to reward my effort, mom and pop geese took turns landing on my back, giving me an incessant flopping on my head and shoulders.
I wondered why my wonderful wife wasn’t rushing to my rescue and then noticed that she was searching for her camera. Okay — let’s pause and contemplate — it’s Father’s Day, a day when I should be decorated and honored, and instead I’m being flopped for a good deed while my wife grabs her camera. (Now, a longer pause, as all of you think sympathetic thoughts.)
Intrepidly, I endured; let me repeat that intrepidly I endured the hissing and flopping, while untangling the little gosling. And while I was working, suddenly, there was silence. Looking over my shoulder, I noticed mom, pop, and the three gosling siblings standing a few feet behind me. They were watching, perhaps hoping, and seemingly understanding what I was doing.
Success! See the three photos my wife took below.
My wife posted this event on Facebook, and a local pastor I know commented, “The Goose Whisperer.” I think that I should receive an award for overcoming my previous “goose resentment” and helping when needed.
Unfortunately, my wife didn’t get her camera out in time to record the goose flopping while I untangled the string.
First: The Hero
The hero untangles the baby while mom, pop, and goslings pray in the background.
Second: The Fishing Line
The nasty fishing line (fishermen should be careful).
Third: The Happy Goose Family
Success, as the grateful family swims away.
