Beagles on Chicken

It's time to once again turn the pages of the Broken Pawn to those most literate of beagles – Baxter and Daisy
to recount a memorable Memorial Day Weekend!

Hi Everyone!! It’s Daisy… and Baxter ready for our favorite blog of the year! Our Marshalltown Fried Chicken review!! YUM!! We love fried chicken, don’t we Daisy? We certainly do and when Kathy went to Long Island last weekend to help take Ben home from school we thought the long weekend would be the perfect time to eat all the fried chicken in town. I think anytime is the perfect time to eat fried chicken but this weekend is especially perfect after Hank and Kathy boarded us at the Happy Tails kennel two weeks ago while they went to the Waffle House in Kansas City. To be fair they also went to their niece Lauren’s wedding. Lauren visited us years ago and took us for a walk to the Jiffy to get beef sticks. We like Lauren. I like Lauren too but she should have made her wedding beagle friendly, especially since there was a barbeque at the rehearsal dinner, a brunch with lots of bacon, and hamburgers and salmon at the reception. That’s right Baxter! What’s the point of having all that wonderful food without some beagles around to show everyone how to enjoy it? No one can enjoy meat, fish, and chicken like a beagle!

And speaking of chicken we had a great Memorial Day weekend tasting chicken! Hank got a three piece dark meat meal from every place in town. We got to eat a drumstick and Hank shared the rest of the chicken with us! YUM!! We mainly judged each chicken meal on the taste of the chicken but we considered other factors also, Baxter! That’s right, Daisy. The size of the chicken and the quality of the sides are important. The better the sides the more chicken Hank shares with us! And the price is sort of important since Hank has to work to pay for our chicken. And the more chicken Hank can afford… …means more chicken to share with us!

For such wonderful in-house food, Pizza Hut's to-go chicken is so tiny! The butter is almost as big as the chicken leg...

Hank’s first stop was to the local Pizza Ranch in Friday night after he got home and took us for our afternoon walk. Hank hasn’t liked the Pizza Ranch since 2014 when he had to wait a half hour for a bucket of fried chicken he called in advance for. Luckily for us Hank wanted to uphold the integrity of our pizza reviews and decided to get us some Pizza Ranch chicken!! YUM!! The three piece chicken dinner at the Pizza ranch cost $7.49 and included a roll, a tiny, tiny cup of cole slaw, and a larger carton of mashed potatoes. The chicken was delicious, Baxter. It was indeed, Daisy. It was tender and juicy but there was a big problem. The chicken was so small we barely got a taste! The little pat of butter that comes with the roll was almost as big as the chicken legs! I’m giving Pizza Ranch two paws. The chicken thigh was so small that Hank didn’t share any with us. It was a disappointing finish to what should have been a great meal of superior chicken. I’m giving Pizza Ranch 2 paws for the taste but they need to step their game up.
Pizza Ranch – 2 paws 

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Hy-Vee has large chicken pieces. This year the chicken tasted way better than years before...

After a bad night’s sleep dreaming about tiny chicken legs, we woke up bright and early on Saturday. Hank took us for some walks and then left to get chicken at the Hy-Vee. Hy-Vee has always had giant chicken pieces that were dry and tasteless but our neighbor Becky told us that their chicken has gotten a lot better in the last few months. Hank paid $9.99 for a three piece chicken dinner with sides of Egg Potato Salad and Rotini Pasta Salad. Hy-Vee gave Hank a dinner roll too. The chicken was as big as ever but instead of tasting like dried out cardboard this chicken was excellent. It was great Baxter. The chicken would have melted in my mouth if I hadn’t gobbled it down as soon as Hank gave it to me! There was so much potato and rotini salad that Hank was almost full and you know what that means Daisy! It meant that Hank shared more of his chicken with us. Hy-Vee took their chicken to another level this year. I have to give them 4 paws, Baxter. I’m only giving Hy-Vee three paws Daisy. The chicken was great but for $10 I think they should have given Hank a drink to go along with the chicken. I did love that there was at least twice as much chicken than the Pizza Ranch. Hy-Vee was the clear front-runner but there was still a lot more chicken to taste!
Hy-Vee - 3 1/2 paws 

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Haley's has the best broasted chicken but it got mixed up with the potato salad in Hank's car. If 10 pieces are $12, how come 3 pieces are $10?

After some more walks Hank left us on Saturday evening to get a three piece chicken dinner from Haley’s Deli. Haley’s was last year’s winner and we have fond memories of getting 12 pieces of broasted chicken on our Sunday morning walks when they were a grocery store that sold chicken instead of a restaurant that is closed Sundays like they are now. Those were the days! Hank got a three piece chicken dinner with pasta salad and potato salad as sides along with a roll for the same $10 that the Hy-Vee charged. Hank didn’t ask for a bag to take the chicken home in and the salads got smeared around in the chicken on the drive home. It’s hard to blame the Haley’s for Hank’s mistake but I didn’t like the chicken mixed in with potato and pasta salad. The chicken part was good though. I loved the chicken and Hank should be more careful. Haley’s has great chicken but it was a lot smaller than Hy-Vee’s so I’m only giving them 3 paws. I’m giving them three paws also. The chicken was great but if the pieces were bigger there wouldn’t have been room for the salads to mix with the chicken.
Haley's – 3 paws 

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KFC gave us 2 thighs and 1 leg! More chicken! YUM!! And they gave Hank a soft drink to fill him up so he could share more chicken with us!

We all had great fried chicken dreams and got up on Sunday fat and happy. I get up fat and happy every day but today I was looking forward to our last taste test. We had three walks and waited almost all afternoon before Hank left to go to the Kentucky Fried Chicken for the $8.49 big box meal. Hank got original recipe and the chicken came with a roll, potato salad, cole slaw, and a soda. Hank liked the soda. It was almost 100 degrees and Hank drank most of the soda on his way home which left… …more chicken for us to taste because he was so full. It didn’t hurt that there was way more cole slaw from KFC than the Pizza Ranch even if there was a little less mashed potatoes. The best thing about the KFC big box was that instead of two legs and a thigh like every other store gave us we got… Two Thighs and a Leg! YUM! Chicken Legs are great but the thighs have more meat for Hank to share. Having two thighs made up for KFC’s smaller chicken pieces. And it was delicious. Hank doesn’t give us any of the fried skin but the KFC chicken had a smoke flavor built right into the meat that I found very tasty. My chicken was great too and because of the soda I think we got more of the KFC chicken than any of the others. I’m giving KFC four paws. I think I’ll give KFC four paws also, Baxter. Filling up our owner with soda so we can get more chicken is sure to get a max score from any beagle judge.
KFC – 4 paws 

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So that’s the end of our fried chicken contest for another year, Daisy. It’s too bad we can’t have one every week. I know Baxter. It’s so sad when our chicken weekend is over. All the chicken was excellent and the KFC proved that last is not least by coming from behind to beat a vastly improved Hy-Vee fried chicken experience. So it's back to beef stick treats and Hank sharing his bologna sandwiches for another year but that's not so bad, Daisy. We do love our beef stick treats and bologna but I'll miss fried chicken after eating nothing but for a whole weekend! Cheer up Daisy! Maybe it will be only one dog year! We are dogs, you know. Oooh... I like it! How long is one dog year? Let's see...52 weeks divided by 7 carry the 2...add 1...it might be Saturday!

A Rabbit's Tale

Oreo (2007-2018)

  I never had a rabbit until I got married. One Easter Kathy said, “Come on. We’re going to get a rabbit.” We headed to a pet store in Scotch Plains and got a dwarf Polish rabbit we named Buster. Buster was all black and had a cage he stayed in but was smart enough to use a litter box and had the run of our apartment in back of Phil's barbershop in Hillside New Jersey. Buster nearly came to a bad end one evening when I came home from having my wisdom teeth taken out to find Buster had chewed through all the power cords on my computer. I eventually calmed down and Buster moved with us from New Jersey to Iowa. He was a friendly sort but when we got Queenie the beagle he was scared of her and would stay in his cage whenever she was around. One day we woke up and Buster was dead. There was no warning and we assumed he had a heart attack in the middle of the night.

  Our next rabbit was a big brown and white Dutch rabbit named Pogo. Our neighbors had gotten him from the high school and were moving so we took him in. Pogo was never scared of the dogs and had the run of the kitchen where he would hang out with the boots in the boot tray in the winter and sneak around to steal pieces of Queenie’s dog food (Queenie was a notoriously slow eater that would eat a little of her food every hour or so). One day in 2007 we woke up and Pogo was dead just like Buster.

  Within a week Kathy got a black and white Dutch rabbit from the local Earl May store. The new rabbit was named Oreo and was slightly bigger than Buster. While Buster was a homebody that was scared of the dogs and stayed in his cage and Pogo was content to hang around in the boot tray, Oreo was a rascally type that would roam all around the kitchen and beyond. Our house has a stairway that leads upstairs from the kitchen. If the door was left open, Oreo would scamper upstairs and hide in a bedroom under a bed. He rarely chewed on wires and had an affinity for staying under the bed just out of reach. I always had to get a baseball bat or a cane and chase him from under the bed, after which Oreo would hop at top speed down the hall and back downstairs to his kitchen area.

  Oreo was never afraid of Queenie and Tuffy and shared the kitchen with them happily. He did have a beef with the kitchen broom and would attack it whenever it got too close to him. For such a gentle fellow Oreo was surprisingly fierce when confronted by the kitchen broom. One day Kathy was substitute teaching and took Oreo with her for the kids to play with. Oreo was a big hit but never went back to school because Kathy found the kids couldn’t concentrate with a bunny nearby.

  A couple of years after we got Oreo, Queenie and Tuffy passed away within weeks of each other and I was suddenly dogless. I was depressed and spent a few minutes each day putting Oreo on my lap and petting him until he would get bored and start scampering around. Oreo was a good substitute dog and just the friend I needed. Oreo got along good with Daisy and Baxter when we got the beagle puppies a few weeks later but the little beagles were so rambunctious we were afraid they would stampede Oreo so we split the kitchen in half with a three foot fence and reduced Oreo's running area in half but he didn't seem to mind at all.

  Oreo had a diet of rabbit pellets and hay and plenty of treats. One of Oreo’s favorite parts of the day was when I made my sandwich to take to work each day. As soon as I went to the kitchen to make the sandwich, the beagles and Oreo would start running over to me. I would give Oreo some bread and lettuce, the beagles some bologna, and everyone would get some cheese. Kathy would always have a packet of cranberries to give Oreo as treats. I like grapes and so did Oreo. When I had grapes to pack for lunch I’d make sure to give Oreo a grape as a treat. He liked them so much that I’d give him a grape or two at night and if I used all the grapes for Friday’s lunch on my way back home from work I would stop at the store to get some more so I would be able to give Oreo his treat.

  At Matt’s high school graduation party one of the parents saw Oreo and told me how he had a pet rabbit who lived in a hutch outside that just loved twigs from apple trees. I started mentioning how Oreo got grapes, cheese, lettuce, etc.… when the parent saw our apple tree outside. We went outside and picked out the perfect twig from the apple tree, cut it to the perfect size, and brought it in to give to Oreo. Oreo took a look at the twig, sniffed it once, and treated the twig with the disdain a food critic might display towards a Whopper.

  We knew Oreo was a pretty old bunny but he was as active as ever (except for not sneaking upstairs through the back steps). I picked him up on most days to give him a few pets and could tell he was getting a little bony and losing his body mass. Earlier this year I found Oreo laying on his side more than a few times having what looked like convulsions which he would recover from once I gave him some pets.

  Last Monday, Oreo didn’t come out of his cage for sandwich time and had that raggedy look that I’ve seen all too often when an animal is near death. I was hoping I was wrong but I wasn’t. When I came home from work Oreo was laying on his side in his cage. I didn’t know if he would be alive the next morning but he was still laying on his side. He didn’t come out for sandwich time but when I gathered my sandwich and grapes and fruit for lunch there was Oreo hanging out by the refrigerator. I gave him a grape but he didn’t eat it. When I came home Oreo was hanging out by a window with his head on a little shelf and not moving very much and not eating. On Wednesday Oreo didn’t come out of his cage but Kathy took him into the backyard for some fresh air and it seemed to perk him up a bit.

  Oreo stayed in his cage on Thursday morning and passed away that day in Kathy’s lap. We buried him in the backyard. His eyes were still open as we put the dirt over him. I was really close to Oreo. He was with me through some big moments like leaving every job I've had in Iowa, the deaths of Queenie and Tuffy, and the arrival of Daisy and Baxter. I cleaned out his cage this past weekend and it still sits under a shelf in the kitchen. I see it every time I go in that room and think of my friend. We took down the divider fence that separated Oreo’s part of the kitchen and I think about him when I involuntary get ready to hurdle the fence when I realize it is no longer there. Oreo was a great bunny and an even better friend. I miss him now and will miss him for a long time to come.

This video from 2010 is the only one I have of Oreo to go along with the hundreds of pictures.

Beagles on the Bright Side

It's once again time for America's favorite beagles – Baxter and Daisy,
to guest write a post in the Broken Pawn. It seems these most literate of beagles are in a surprisingly optimistic mood.

Hi Everyone! It Daisy… … and Baxter here with another blog for our readers. It sure has been a while since Hank let us take a turn at his blog, Daisy! I know Baxter. It's a shame because this was one of the most eventful winters ever. That right! And a lot of stuff happened too! Sigh…I suppose that’s one way of putting it. The big news was Hank spent two of months home with us. His last job ended in December and he took a whole month off spending time with Kathy and us before he even started looking for a job. He was doing some part-time programming but that was only a few hours a week and he spent the rest of his time walking us and eating at home. I like it when Hank is home with us. Me too! We love Kathy and she is home with us a lot but Hank does one thing that Kathy never does. Eat Meat! YUM!!! I love Meat! Kathy is a vegetarian and doesn’t eat any meat. But Hank eats lots of meat. When Hank works he makes a bologna sandwich to take to work and share with us but when he was home he ate lots of soup. That’s because in the winter all the grocery stores had sales on Progresso and Campbell’s Chunky Soup for 99 cents a can or less. Hank got lots of soup with beef and chicken in them. YUM!! I love beef and chicken. Every day Hank would heat up a can of soup and share it with is. My favorite was the Campbell Chunky Sirloin Burger soup, Baxter. It had lots of Sirloin Burger pieces for Hank to share with us. You certainly can’t go wrong with Chunky Sirloin Burger soup but my favorite was the Progresso Beef Barley Soup. It had lots of cubed beef chunks for Hank to share with us and there was so much barley in the soup Hank would get filled up and give us almost all the Beef! YUM!! That was wonderful to have soup every day but now that Hank is back working all was get is part of his bologna sandwich. It’s so sad. Cheer up Daisy! Maybe Hank will get laid off and then we can get back to eating soup every day! That’s right Baxter! There’s a bright side to almost everything if you know where to look.

Here's some of our favorite soups! Campbell;s Chunky Sirloin Burger is my favorite!! I like Progresso Beef Barley! YUM!!

Sure! Like when our neighbors Gary and Linda’s car got stuck in their driveway. It looked like they were going to be stuck in the driveway until spring but we were walking by with Hank and Kathy. Another neighbor was also walking by and Hank helped push the car out of the driveway. We helped too! That’s right! We barked and howled and were so loud that Hank and the other neighbor pushed extra hard so we would get back to our walk and stop being so noisy. The next day Gary gave Hank FIVE DOLLARS for helping him. And because we were such good helpers Hank decided to get us a treat with the five dollars! Hank got us a bag of Jack Link’s AM Dried Breakfast Sausage made with applesauce. I don’t care much about applesauce but like the Jack Link’s website says “Sausage is delicious and amazing!” The website also talks about the “magic of portable sausage” and I agree 100%. The sausage tasted even better than our beef stick treats and I didn’t taste any applesauce. We didn’t get the sausages every day so they lasted over a month! Now every time it snows we head over to Gary and Linda’s driveway to help if they get stuck but it hasn’t happened yet. It just snowed last weekend. Maybe we’ll get another blizzard before spring so we can get more of Jack Link’s AM Dried Breakfast Sausages! YUM!!

Jack Link's breakfast sausage treats are the BEST!! I wish our neighbors car would get stuck more often!

Most things have a bright lining, but there was nothing good about what happened at the pond by the cemetery this winter. That’s right Daisy. First Mr. Goose died. It was very cold and when we went there for our Sunday morning walk so Hank could take pictures he was curled up in a ball. He didn’t even move to get any of the bread Kathy brought to give all the ducks and geese. Kathy threw some over to him so he got something to eat but he barely moved. Hank thought he was sick and then on Tuesday the paper said he died. I guess everybody dies but I’d hate to die on a frozen pond outside in the winter. Me neither! I’m glad Kathy and Hank have a nice warm house for when we get old. Not that that’s going to happen anytime soon. A few weeks after Mr. Goose died, a loose dog attacked Bob the Swan at the cemetery. He went to the vet but he died a few days later. It was so sad. I was afraid the cemetery would ban dogs but it’s still Ok for us to go there if we are on leashes. We’re always on leashes when we are outside so we don’t run away or get hit by cars. Sometimes we go to our backyard and then there’s no leashes so we can run around a little. I miss seeing Bob and Mr. Goose at the pond. I miss them too, Baxter. There are still plenty of ducks and geese at the cemetery though. Lately there is the funniest duck – he is all black except for some red on his face. He’s funny looking but pretty cool also. I hope he sticks around for a while. I like seeing the different animals at the duck pond but it is very dangerous living outside all the time.

Rest In Peace Mr. Goose and Bob the Swan...Welcome to the neighborhood red-faced duck!

A big thing happened just last week, Daisy. Last Saturday it snowed but then Kathy left and didn’t come back until Sunday. She had to go to a bridal shower for her niece, Lauren. We were lucky that Hank stayed home with us. Hank walked us a lot but he left for the entire afternoon to help the Boy Scouts with some chess stuff. We were so lonely. I was lonely too but I just took a nap and Hank came home while I was still sleeping. You are always sleeping, Baxter! It’s what I do best! I stayed alert for intruders. Of course no one would dare intrude when I was on duty. We didn’t like Kathy being away for a whole night but there was a bright side, Daisy! There sure was! Kathy made us a slab of corned beef for us to share with Hank! No one can make corned beef like Kathy!! YUM!! It was moist and tender. And it had a layer of juicy fat around the edge of each slice! It was the best corned beef ever. I thought Kathy was going to be gone a whole week to give us time to eat all the corned beef. But Kathy came home the very next day. It was the best of both worlds! We didn’t have to stay home alone while Hank went to work on Monday… …and we got a whole corned beef! Not only was there a bright side to Kathy leaving, there was a side of corned beef! YUM!!

It's always good to see the bright side... and no side is brighter than a side of corned beef!

The Trouble With Harry

These pictures from November, December, and February show Harry's gradual loss of feather cover on his neck...

  I’ve written previously how one of our two cockatiels was killed by Daisy in 2014 when he flew too close to him, leaving us with one cockatiel named Harry. Eventually, Kathy and I decided not to try to get Harry a new cockatiel to be friends with because the process of introducing cockatiels to each other is long and has no guarantee of success. We also found out that while cockatiels are happier when they bond they don’t have to bond with another cockatiel – they can bond with humans as well.

  Since then Harry and I have bonded – every morning during his outdoor time he sits on my finger and I rub his head and feathers for about 20 minutes until he gets bored and ambles over to his play area. It seemed he was happy with the arrangement until last November when I noticed he was getting a bald spot on his neck. I kept an eye on the situation and saw that new feathers would start to grow back and would disappear before transforming from porcupine like quills to actual feathers.

  It seemed that Harry was pulling out his feathers. I looked up cockatiel feather pulling on the Internet and the possible causes ranged from boredom to parasites to sexual frustration to stress to a change in environment to diet. Nothing has changed in Harry’s environment and he seems to relieve his frustration easily enough by rubbing on a cloth toy in his cage like he has dome for years. I saw no evidence of parasites so I went to the Petco in Ames and got some advice, vitamins for his water, some new toys to give him something new to play with and be less bored by, and a spray for his feathers in case he was pulling feathers because of itchy skin.

  I put the new toys in Harry’s cage and play area and gave him vitamins right away but didn’t feel comfortable using the spray because winter has come with a vengeance and the spray warns against letting a sprayed bird get chilly. Harry liked the new toys and didn’t balk at the vitamin infused water but he was still pulling his new feathers out and occasionally some of the existing feathers around his neck.

  Our local vet doesn’t handle birds very much but recommended the small animal hospital at Iowa State University that has veterinarians that specialize in birds. I made an appointment for Harry on January 18th. I filled out an eight page questionnaire about Harry’s habitat, habits, and health and talked with a veterinary student about Harry and the best way to prepare Harry for travel. It wasn’t very warm on the day of Harry’s appointment so I warmed up the car for 20 minutes and put Harry in a cat carrier covered with towels. I put Harry in the passenger seat, removed the towel covering the door of the carrier so he could see me, buckled him in, and off we went.

  Harry handled the trip very well with only a minimum of squawking and we arrived in Ames 45 minutes later at 9am. Harry and I checked in and went to the Avian waiting area until Lynette the vet student brought us into an examination room. Harry stayed in his cage and I waited in the exam room with him until the vet came in and said they would bring Harry to a back room to get blood and stool samples. Harry went to the back and Lynette told me that I could go get lunch because while Harry would quickly generate stool samples in no time it would take over an hour to get enough blood for a sample.

  I went to Wal-Mart and ate lunch at Jimmy Johns and got back to the veterinary office an hour after I left. After a few minutes I was ushered back to the exam room and met with Lynette the vet student and two of the doctors. The doctors said Harry had no parasites and was in generally good health except that he weighed 90 grams which was a few grams overweight (90 grams is 3¼ ounces) and that his feathers were darker and had less spring than they would like. They attributed this to his diet of cockatiel food from the Wal-Mart which they said contained almost all fatty seeds and recommended a pellet based diet and even gave me some samples and some instructions on how to wean him off his seeds and onto the pellets because just like people, cockatiels prefer fatty foods over healthy pellet based foods.

  The doctors told me that Harry’s throat swab and stool sample both had high concentrations of yeast which led them to the conclusion that Harry had a yeast infection in his throat which was causing itching and his feather pulling. I was told the samples had been sent to the lab for confirmation but to help the infection I should switch his normal tap water out for a mixture of distilled water, apple cider vinegar, and honey. I was pleased to find out Harry was in good health and happily paid my $400 bill, put Harry back in the carrier, buckled him in the car, and we were home around 1pm.

  I changed Harry’s water with the distilled water/apple cider vinegar/honey concoction and started mixing in his pellets into his food. While Harry was super about taking his trip to Ames, he was less than happy about his new food and water. Harry would still sit on my shoulder but he resisted all my efforts to rub his head feathers like he used to. You could say he was an angry bird.

  This went on for around a week and then I got a call from the Lynette the veterinarian student to tell me that Harry didn’t have a yeast infection after all. It seems that his samples in the lab were tainted by yeast which lead to the false conclusion. I was glad to hear that Harry didn’t have a yeast infection but this left us right back where we started with the exception of knowing that Harry was in generally good condition except for being a couple of grams overweight. Of course if the doctors could be wrong about the yeast infection they could be wrong about Harry’s good health but I believe the doctors are genuine in their interest about Harry’s well-being.

  I decided to get Harry back on his fatty seed and tap water diet and after a couple of days he was back sitting on my finger enjoying having his head rubbed and whistling back and forth with me. Harry is at least 12 years old and cockatiels live in the wild for 10 to 14 years so it is possible that he is just reaching the end of his lifespan and his feather-pulling is some age related thing. On the other hand cockatiels can live 20 or more years as pets so I may have Harry for a number of years. My plan for now is to enjoy Harry pulled feathers and all and start to spray his feathers with the solution from Petco when the weather gets warmer.

Neck feathers or not, Harry is my buddy and I'm going to do my best to get him back to his old self!

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.

Rest In Peace Mr. Goose. I hope you enjoyed your life and have an even better afterlife.