Broken Pawn: Requiem For A Goose

Mr. (Goosey) Goose 1999-2018. The picture on the left is from when I first met him on July 20, 2014 and the one on the right when I last saw him on December 31, 2017.

  A few years back there were a few days during each year that I would take a few days off from work and stay home with Daisy and Baxter while Kathy would drive Ben and his belongings to his school in Idaho. Normally my dog walking routine is pretty structured but during these stay home days I would walk Daisy and Baxter through the alleys to sniff different areas while I would check out the backyards in the neighborhood. I would also take them 4 blocks north to Riverside Cemetery. The cemetery is on a huge stretch of property with a river in the back with lots of trees and right by the entrance is a large pond with geese, ducks, and a single swan. Daisy and Baxter loved meandering along the paths and I liked checking out all the different birds that would congregate at the pond.

  On July 20th, 2014 I took the beagles to the cemetery and there was a big group of people at one end. I recognized one member of the group as Levi, a high school friend of Matt’s. I stopped to say hi and Levi told me that his family was there to bring their pet goose to the pond to live. The goose had lived his entire life (13 or 14 years) at the acreage where Levi’s family lived with his mother but when the goose’s mother died he was very lonely so they were going to bring him to the cemetery where would be plenty of geese and people to hang out with. The goose’s name was Mr. Goose and while Levi and his family were gathered to say good bye to him and make sure he would be OK at the pond.

  I had been posting pictures of Daisy and Baxter, and the rest of the animals on Facebook since early 2011. I originally posted puppy pictures but Kathy’s family wanted to see how the beagles were getting on each week so I made taking and posting the pictures part of my weekly routines. Now that I actually knew one of the geese at the pond I talked Kathy into taking the beagles there on our Sunday morning walks and took pictures of Mr. Goose and the rest of the birds each week. Kathy would bring some bread to feed the animals and I would take pictures.

Mr. Goose was pretty sociable with the non-Canadian geese. Here are his crowds from 2015 and 2017.

At the beginning of Mr. Goose’s stay in the cemetery pond we would find him apart from all the other birds but with a couple of months he gravitated towards the two other non-Canadian geese – a grey goose and a brown goose with an orange bulb on his beak. There are a number of people that stop by the pond to leave buckets of corn or feed bread to the birds. The winters could be rough but the cemetery staff always had a patch of the pond heated enough for some swimming room and there seemed to be enough food to go around if not enough to keep them from turning their nose at the bread Kathy would bring on Sundays. Mr. Goose seemed much older than the rest of the crew and preferred to stay out of the water but he was a personable sort that come up to you and squawk in order to get some bread and attention.

We used to take our kids to the duck pond for some exercise and cheap entertainment but you notice more things when you go every single week for a few years. For the first couple of years there were three white ducks and a wood duck with a fluffy head as regulars along with the geese, swan, and the rest of the wood ducks. One year one of the white ducks was gone and the next year the fluffy headed duck was gone as well. The grey goose disappeared but was replaced by two more white geese that looked like streamlined versions of Mr. Goose. The grey goose disappeared one spring and then this past summer all the wood ducks and white ducks disappeared all in one weekend. The pond looked pretty bare without any wood ducks but within two weeks an entire new group of wood ducks had made their way to the pond. And every spring this Canadian goose with a crooked neck shows up with a group of baby geese that we would see grow bigger and bigger every year.

The birds at the duck pond come and go. The fluffy headed duck, brown and white duck, and the 3 white ducks were my favorites to look at but all disappeared in the past couple of years....

  And through this all was Mr. Goose who was slowing down with age and swung one leg awkwardly when he walked but had also become a local celebrity. He made the front page of the Marshalltown paper in 2015 (where I found his name was Mr. Goosey Goose) with the news that Levi’s mom is writing a children’s book about his life and times. Mr. Goose was also in the paper this year. One of Mr. Goose’s white goose pals had passed away from cancer and Mr. Goose was so despondent the cemetery was looking for a companion for Mr. Goose.

  This past week has been bitterly cold with the temperatures barely getting to zero. On Sunday, Kathy and I didn’t even walk to the pond – we drove Daisy and Baxter the four blocks. The pond was almost completely frozen. I took some pictures and Mr. Goose looked miserable. He was huddled in a ball and had that unkempt manner that has become all too familiar to me in seeing more pets than I care to remember in their last days. I thought he was dead but he perked up when Kathy threw some bread his way and grabbed as much as he could reach without getting up. Kathy and I both remarked how off Mr. Goose looked and hoped that it was just the cold weather and he would perk up soon.

  I got the news from Levi via Facebook that Mr. Goose has passed away on Tuesday. The cemetery called Levi’s mom and he has already had his funeral. It is sad to know I’ll never see Mr. Goose at the cemetery again but I was happy to have made his acquaintance. The only problem I had with Mr. Goose is the same problem I have with most animals I get to know – they just don’t live long enough. I’ve been through this with more animals than I care to think about and it is never fun to watch what are pretty innocent creatures get frail and die. I’m reminded of this daily when I see an older picture of Daisy and Baxter with their dark brown and black fur and compare to their ever-whitening faces. I guess the best we can do for the animals we care about is to try to make their lives as great as possible. That is certainly the kind of life Mr. Goose had by being brought to the Cemetery’s pond after his mom passed away. He had companionship and plenty of people came by to feed him. I’m not sure a goose or any other animal can have it better.