The Great Goose Roundup

My mind is blank tonight. I can't seem to think of a thing to say. Ever have days like that? Perhaps it is because I haven't talked to my beloved for a few days and I'm feeling a bit down.

Since I've recently decided to be more active on my blog, I went scrounging through my Musings Folder (does anyone else have one of those?) and came across the following story that I wrote back in 2000 (when I was married and living on the south Texas coast). It's not about my beloved, but given that I posted some of my home videos yesterday, it somehow seemed appropriate. I hope it makes you smile. It even brought a smile to my face, remembering that day, lol.

A couple that lives in the same town with my husband and I, also owns a ranch in a nearby town. We had a number of geese around that someone had raised and turned loose. They had become somewhat of a nuisance to all the neighbors, so I had given the couple two geese before. Unfortunately, they had lost one due to the fact that geese think they are bigger than everything else. The gander had attacked a calf and the momma cow took exception to that fact. The cow kicked the gander, so now they were down to one goose and they called me.

Of course they could have more geese. Now, since geese think they are bigger than anyone else, they are not my favorite birds. They attack my baby ducklings and everything else they can get away with. So we planned a day they would come over and get more geese.

Enter the rain. It rained for three days. It was not a hard rain mind you, but a soft, gentle, soaking rain. But that was ok, because the sun came out for a couple of days and dried everywhere it could reach (remember these words, lol).

Then it was the morning of the great goose roundup. At 7:30 a.m. the couple appeared at my home, cage in the back of their truck for the geese, and we plotted strategy. My husband and I would feed the ducks and geese in front of my car. That would put them between two buildings, thereby blocking them in. The couple would then proceed to come up the sides of my car and my husband and I, being in front of the geese and ducks, would have them trapped.

Now there are two groups of geese, a group of four and a couple. Well ... just because geese think they are bigger than everything else doesn't mean they are totally stupid. There were two strangers there and they were not about to come in front of my car. Scratching my head I came up with a brilliant idea.

I live on the coast ... right on the water ... and the houses are on poles. So I decided to trap them underneath the house. My car was blocking them on one side and a screened-in porch was blocking them from the front. I proceeded around my car and came in behind them, my husband came to the front of the car and blocked them there, the husband of my friend came up next to me and blocked them there and my friend came in from under the stairs. We had done it! We had four of the geese trapped under the house!

Dodging left and right, while the geese honked and milled around trying to find an avenue of escape, we kept them under the house and closed in. Slowly, but surely, we worked our way in on them. Slowly, but surely, we managed to narrow it down to about a 7 by 7 foot area. One of the geese decided it had had enough and tried to make a break for it. It darted right toward my friend's husband and, by darn, he caught it!

Now, remember earlier I mentioned that the sun had dried all the areas it could reach, well it hadn't dried the ground under the house. My friend's husband went flying one way and ... when my husband attempted to grab him to break his fall ... the goose went flying in the other. My friend, in the meantime, is standing there with her mouth hanging open and her arms outstretched like she wants a hug. I, on the other hand, take off after the goose that, of course, can fly much better than I can. Needless to say we did not catch any geese that day.

Oh well, maybe next time.

We plan to try again, but this time I'm bringing a video camera.