Tilly, the ongoing saga

First, there were six, and then two, and then three, and then six again

Do you remember my story (Jan. 13, 2010) when Tilly, our resident goose, lost Leopold and we found five little goslings for Tilly to ease the pain of losing her friend?


Several months later Tilly chose one goose out of the five to be her special friend. Because these five goslings had been landlubbers, they made the rounds through my flower and vegetable gardens several times a day. Even the terra cotta flower pots were given a haircut every morning.


So, with a heavy heart we gave all but Violet (Tillie's new friend) to a neighbor who lives several miles from our house. I called the next morning to see how they liked their new home.




What? Only one goose is left? We raced over and rescued the terrified little goose. Tilly had been moping around and was now happy to see at least one of her little friends back.


But what had happened to the other three geese? We looked everywhere.


Two months later, our neighboring farmer wanted to know if our geese could fly? No, they are domestic geese, They are too heavy. He let us know that three geese were living amongst his sheep. They had been there for a week.


Yes, there were two white geese and one grey goose living amongst the sheep. Then we hurriedly drove home and yes, we had two white geese and one grey goose happily swimming on our pond. (Have you lost count yet?)


For two months, the three "lost" geese had walked across many fields, through fences, across a major highway, walked the gauntlet past many raccoons, bears, bobcats, foxes, mountain lions, coyotes and mean barnyard dogs.


No doubt they were on their way to meet up with their long lost friends and a pond they had become accustomed to and familiar with.


We gathered them up and drove them the rest of the way home.


Gina