My Geese

When I was young my Dad would take me with him to the feed stores. He had rabbits and chickens and ducks so we went to feed stores to get their food. Each spring they had ducklings, chicks and goslings to buy. I looked at these babies and wondered if I could ever get a gosling sometime for a pet. When I was 7 years old I asked Dad for 50 cents to buy a gosling. He let me have one. Other spring times I rode my bike up to the feed store all by myself and bought the gosling. I wore my dad’s white shirt and put the gosling in my pocket and rode home on my bike. All in all I bought and took care of and raised 8 goslings.
I had to keep my goslings inside the house because in those days we didn’t have leash laws and there were loads of cats and dogs in the neighborhood that would love to have a juicy little gosling for dinner. I kept the baby in a box with newspapers and water and mash for the baby to eat. I also put some soft material for the baby to snuggle up to. Sometimes Dad would help me put a light bulb in the box for warmth. I kept the box nice and clean, changing it each day or more often because it might get wet with water, never mind poop.





When the goslings got bigger, my folks let me keep the baby goose in the bathtub and we had only one bathroom too! I put papers down and water and mash for the babies to have. Each morning I had to clean the tub out for everyone to get ready for work, school and just life. Then I’d make up the tub again for the goslings and there they would stay unless I had them outside to play. The folks let me do this several times as I had 8 geese in all. Sometimes I got two goslings at a time. We did eat two geese, but I didn’t like doing that. I think they figured this out and stopped that practice.


I took the goslings outside a lot and played with them but until they got big enough to defend themselves, they stayed inside, in the bathtub. We had 15 ducks and 22 chickens, but Dad took care of them. We had two pigeons, two guinea pigs and one tortoise. Dad took care of those animals also. I ended up with 5 adult geese and one gander. We had great eggs. Mother said they made the best cakes ever. I liked the taste of fried goose eggs. We didn’t have any baby geese hatch from their eggs because we didn’t have enough water to allow them to mate. Geese mate for life and my gander had 5 geese as mates.

When we ate dinner our table was in front of French doors. As the they grew up, the geese would fly out of their pen and sit on the porch which was right in front of the doors and visited with us while we ate. They would have come in had we opened the door. They were family.


Marty and I would go on bike rides. Often I would pack a little snack for my gosling and take it with us. I’d wear my dad’s shirts and put the gosling in the pocket, his head sticking up looking around getting a good view of where we were going. When we stopped, we’d sit under a tree and I’d take my gosling out to run around and feed it a little cracker. Then back into my pocket and we’d go home.


When I was 8 years old our milkman became very dangerous to me personally. I had to break away from him once. After that I hid in the garage when he came to deliver the milk. Mother was working then. After he attacked me, the milkman came into the backyard and called out for me when he delivered the milk. My geese flew over their fence and ran to attack him and he had to run away from them. He could never come into the backyard after that. My geese would protect me. When geese run to attack you it isn’t pretty.

I would lay out on the lawn in the backyard and my geese would fly out of their pen and come snuggle around me, talking to me and picking at my face, ears and hair with their beaks. They thought they were my children and I was their mother. Insight had set in for them when they were goslings and I was taking care of them inside the house.


When I was 10 years old, my cousin David wanted to shoot my bow and arrows. I asked him if he had ever shot a bow and he said that he had not. I was very much against him shooting because the target was just in front of my goose pen. It was a backstop made of wood planks about 5 feet by 5 feet. In front of that was a bail of hay with a target on it. I practiced my target shooting all the time, but I was worried about my cousin who had never shot a bow and arrow. We were the same age. I finally gave in and let him shoot. He shot one arrow and it went through the only knot hole in the entire backstop right into my geese pen and right through the neck of one of my geese. I was really upset. I thought he had killed one of my pets. Dad caught the goose, which was running around like a goose with an arrow through it’s neck, and pulled the arrow out. Dad told me the goose would be just fine and he was. The goose healed very quickly. My cousin never asked me about what happened to the goose. We just never talked about it.
In 1995 I visited with my cousins David, Suzie and Kathy. They asked me if we ate that goose. I told them that the goose had survived. They were so astonished. Dave was a little upset because the girls had teased him for all these years that he had killed my goose. They could have asked me.

When I was in high school, they would fly out of their pen when they heard me walking home. I was nearly 1/2 mile away, but they knew I was on my way home. They would walk single file on the side of the road all the way up to where the highway met our street to meet me, honking all the way up, and walk behind me single file honking all the way home. They’d go in the back yard and get back in their pen.


When I got married I couldn’t take them with me to Oakland so Dad and I took them over to Lindo Lake in Santee. There were loads of duck and geese families there and my family of geese did very well there. I did miss them loads.
I went back once to see if they were alright. I saw them from afar. They were a nice family of geese. I didn’t let them see me, afraid that they might recognize me. I didn’t want to disrupt the life they had made for themselves at the lake.

Lindo Lake in Santee
Dad and I did a little fishing there and the family went there in the early morning and cooked breakfast. Jack and Janie would play in the park.

My Hiking Journal

I have been feeling so much better this year. I’m off three medications I had been taking. I’m working more days now. I am feeling much better. Our children are wonderfully taking care of themselves and busy, busy, busy.
So I have found myself at age 66, feeling good, and feeling free and wanting to do something different. I thought about what I would like to do. Already I read, sew, visit with my friends, study Spanish for my work, help people with their Family History. One of the things I thought I should begin doing is exercise. I hate exercising. I’ve only been able to do it when I needed to be fit for something else like volleyball, my Cub calling I had for 23 years, vacation or what have you.
So, now that I have a little time and feeling some freedom I began to think about how I could incorporate exercise into my life. I thought of how much Merlin likes dancing. We could take a dancing class, that would be exercise. Merlin wasn’t as interested as I was. I thought we could play tennis or get baseball mitts and play catch. Merlin said this sounded sort of fun, but we never actually moved in that direction by looking at tennis rackets or gloves.
My friend, Eileen, has consistently told me about the hiking she was doing. She hikes, kayaks, skis, snowshoes, and scuba dives. I often tell her how proud of her and and how much I’d like to do what she was doing, but I am so out of condition. She has offered to help me get in shape. Finally one day toward the end of June this year, I took her up on her offer. I love hiking, the outdoors, camping, picnicking and everything out in God’s great creation. And this would also improve my health.
She first took me to a little hike across from the Le Callie Restaurant along Wasatch Blvd. It was beautiful with the trail running along side the Little Cottonwood Creek which was running full still from the spring runoff. There was a little hill probably 50 feet. While making my way up this little hill, I had to stop 4 times to catch my breath. The last time I stopped to catch my breath, I kneeled down and then I had a hard time getting up. I was really out of shape.

We went on this trail two times and I took Merlin once. It was beautiful each time and I improved each time and Merlin enjoyed it too. However, Merlin is in great condition because of his work. Never the less, he goes with me which is the best. I also began going down to our exercise room and working out on our machines. This helped a lot. The first time I went down, there was a woman working out on the elliptical. She had been on it for nearly one hour! After 10 minutes on the bike I was exhausted but thinking I should build up my leg muscles, I went over to the weight machines. I was like a beached whale trying to get in and out of the machines. The very beautiful, slim woman on the elliptical just laughed at all my maneuvers and groans. I felt humiliated. But I was in love with my new hobby, so I just took it and went on. My last time on the elliptical was 30 minutes. A big improvement for me. Plus I'm much better on the weight machines. I don't groan so much.

Ashley the Jack Russell Terrier and Sebastian the cat

Ashley and Sebastian

We watched Scott and Jenny’s home and pets last weekend, while they went to Bear Lake. I’ve never house set before. In preparation, I began thinking of what might happen while I was responsible. We could have a tornado, earthquake, micro burst that only targeted their house, or perhaps a crude oil line break beneath their house. You think unlikely, but given my general level of anxiety, these were things I couldn’t discount.

While those emergencies might be doubtful, there was one little ball of fire that focused my attention on the hear and now-Ashley, the Jack Russell Terrier.

I had a good time with Ashley. But I did have my other less dramatic anxieties which are enumerated below.

1. I watched her very carefully because I was trying to keep the home neat and tidy and I didn’t want Ashley to have an accident on my watch.
2. I worried that Ashley might run away and I would not be able to get her back. She is as old as I am but she can really run fast and she knows I’m not the alpha person when it comes to dogs. So no matter how much I plead, coax and beg, whistle and jump up and down, she doesn’t pay any attention to me, unless I have her leash and ask her if she wants to go for a walk. She gets that and is always ready. But I felt guilt-ridden to trick her by promising a walk and then putting the leash on her just to sneak her into the house. That’s just bad. And she would know.
3. So, here we were, two old ladies going on several walks a day for one of the old ladies to do her thing as we went. We won't ask which one. I was always hoping it wasn’t going to be me.
4. Then did I have enough food for us to eat? (We eat what we eat and are comfortable with that.) And I didn’t want to have to go to the store when Ashley needed a walk.
5. Would I forget my own schedule while watching the house, dog and rabbit? I might be on a walk with Ashley, so that there would be no mess in the house and she would be comfortable, when I was supposed to be with one of my friends helping her with her family history. Oh the stress of it all!

But I did enjoy the walks through Red Butte Creek and the neighborhood with Ashley. She would let me know when she needed to go outside. She would become so excited when she knew we were going for a walk. I’d say; “Ashley, do you want to go for a walk?” She would come over to me and leap into the air at least two feet high. She would run ahead and come back to get me, then run ahead and come back again until we got her leash on. Then off we went on our walk. I had a good time visiting with other dogs and people along the way. Ashley strained at the leash at first, but by the second day she was no longer choking herself. Thankfully! She responded to little tugs on her leash to come along, and I responded when she really wanted to check out an area for a long time. I had a good time with Ashley.

There wasn’t much to do for the rabbit. She is in a raccoon proof cage. Her food and water were easy. She wasn’t in the house so she couldn’t mess it up. She didn’t need to go for a walk to poop. She did it in her cage. No stress really.

This time with Ashley reminded me of the time we watched Sebastian the cat for Canda and Thom. That was for nearly two weeks. Sebastian was my mother’s cat. When Mother died, Canda and Thom were kind enough to take Sebastian. Canda brought the food, vitamins and hair ball medicine and gave us wonderful instructions. We were to feed Sebastian once a day, give the vitamins and hairball medicines once a day by placing a bit on our finger and Sebastian would lick it off. Canda counseled us on the importance of this regimen for Sebastian’s health as he was an old cat.

Licking off the meds was something Sebastian never did. I was very worried that Sebastian would get sick on our watch. I went to the Petco and purchased some cat food with morsels of hairball medicine included. Sebastian carefully picked all of the anti-hairball bits out of the food and spit them out on the floor. So we began to have small clumps of hairball throw up around the house. I was beginning to feel really stressed.

We thought that Sebastian was used to having the run of the house and to sleep on Canda and Thom’s bed. Merlin didn’t like Sebastian sleeping with us but he agreed in order to help Sebastian during this likely stressful time for him while he was away from his own home. However, Sebastian would get on and off our bed during the night about five times. When he came back, he would smack us in the face so we would wake up and pet him a little to honor his return.

In response, Merlin shut our bedroom door at night. Sebastian countered the door being closed by howling all night, banging on the bedroom door and throwing up all over the house.

Sebastian’s food was another issue. I had replaced his regular food with food that included hairball medicine; Sebastian decided he wouldn’t eat any of that food. Totally wonderful! Sebastian won’t take his hairball medicine, vitamins or eat. So, I’ll give Sebastian back skinny, throwing up hairballs and who knows what else from the lack of his vitamins.

Now I’m finding myself at Petco to see if I can find a food that Sebastian might eat. Eureka! I found some very nice pricy food that was made with real fish. Surely Sebastian will recognize our benevolent and altruistic intent when he sees to what extent we will go to please him. No, he did not want that food either. I tried several different foods. I found myself at Petco one day, looking at specialty foods, personalized food and water dishes with matching placemats. It finally came to me. . . This is not my cat. I only had to wait for his family to come and get him.

Then I go back to feeding him the original food and he eats. But he still will not take the vitamins and hairball stuff. I am trying to control my anxiety about not fulfilling my assignment. Toward the end of our cat sitting time I noticed Sebastian was gaining weight. I thought he was probably filling up with the few hairballs he didn’t throw up all over the house. Then I notice that Merlin was giving him food one evening. I was feeding Sebastian in the morning. Our instructions were to feed him once a day. Sebastian was getting fat!
We determined we were not responsible animal sitters. We were so relieved when Canda and Thom got back and didn’t say one thing about how Sebastian looked. And they didn’t seem to even care that he didn’t take his vitamins and hairball medicines. I am thankfully relieved of my stewardship.