Family life … Alice the
friendly goose
Alice winds
up on my bed every night. She is quite the down comforter. By morning there’s down
aplenty on the bed spread and some pretty big feathers too, along with two webbed
feet, two wings and a bright orange beak. Why, look, it’s a real live goose, awaking
after another night of fowl dreams. The snowy white Alice sleeps at the foot of
my bed every night in my log home by the Weber River.
A goose
around the house is a comforter of sorts even if it’s not one of the blanket
varieties. They make wonderful pets,
they’re very calming, a goose as a house pet? Who would have thought it, until
the day a clutch of nine eggs laid in a vacated nest by the river. Time for a
house goose Precious decided. Right then and there, she snatched up the cutest
of the fluffy goslings running around and brought her inside.
That
was six years ago, and now Alice is a part of the family. At least that’s how
it seems, as the 2 foot-tall goose struts around the house like she owns the
place, nibbling at her food in a big dog dish on the kitchen floor or gazing
out the patio door at the family’s other geese ducks and turkeys, banished to a
life in the back yard.
Miss
Alice isn’t content to be just a home birdy; she’s also quite the gadabout.
Maybe you’ve met her at the Roy Farmers Market or at a school, home improvement
center or craft store. We have pictures of her at old Faithful. She was
watching and thinking, “Can I go swimming now?” For some reason she seems to
like the color blue. When she meets children wearing blue She always wants to
nibble on their shirts.
Although Alice
is very clean, we don’t take Alice places that other house pets can’t go, like
grocery stores or restaurants. Every errand with Alice in tow takes two or
three times longer because everybody wants to pet her, and double takes are the
rule of the day when Alice goes out of town.
At stop lights
people roll down the window and yell at us, “Can we take a picture?’”
One of Alice’s
adventures was posing for photographs with visitors at The Amazing Raise, an
annual fundraiser that benefits charitable groups in Ogden Valley. Alice and a
leopard Appaloosa acted as representatives for the Wasatch Front Chapter of the
Backcountry Horsemen of Utah, of which we are members. Horses can be
intimidating, especially to small children, but Alice is very approachable and
well-behaved. She really thinks she’s in charge of the house hold. Geese often
have a bad reputation for nipping or pinching at people, but Alice just tries
to “preen” folks by running her bill along their skin.
Guests
are also surprised when they meet Alice playing “Mother Goose” at the annual
community baby shower for the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Northern Utah.
She’s a very sweet goes. A lot of geese can be a little bit temperamental and
sort of testy about things Just seeing a
goose walk on a leash is kind of a novel thing you don’t see that every day.
Rango says,
“Alice is
probably the most-pampered goose in Roy. She likes things done her way, she’s
cute and she knows it, for instance, she has her own cat bed for sleep over at
the Wildlife Dirt Center and a tennis shoe she likes to sleep with, and she is
very aware that there are treats packed in her carryover bag. If I don’t give
her the treats she is obviously offended –and she sulks.”
I
thought about certifying Alice as therapy animal so the bird could cheer up animals
in hospitals or nursing homes. She was always great with kids when Precious use
to substitute teach and took her to visit special education classes. One little
mountain goat would hug her and stroke her and Alice would just let her do
anything she wanted. Someday—who knows? You might even read about Alice in the
pages of a best sale kid’s book. She has chronicled the bird’s real life
escapades in what could be title, “The Adventures of Alice the Goose.
KARL WALLACE DDS
To read more Karl Wallace go to: w.w.w.karlwallaceblog.blogspot.com
