RIP
The Canada Goose
Carpenter's Point, MD
d. June 2012
Neighbors were complaining about an injured goose. He was roaming the neighborhood and becoming a menace. He had attacked one neighbor's small dog. He parked himself on another neighbor's front step and wouldn't move when she wanted to come outside. He squawked and frightened her so she went out the back door. and snuck around him.
I thought nothing of it but then a friend of mine was visiting and had been sitting on the beach. After a few minutes, she came back to the house.
"There is a strange looking goose on the beach," she told me. "He kept coming near me and he seemed too aggressive. He made me nervous. So I had to leave the beach."
"Is he still up there? My neighbors have been complaining about him, " I told her.
She looked behind her and said, "No, look, he is right here." And sure enough, this ugly bird was right on my front lawn. He looked sick. He had a funky eye infection in his left eye. His feathers didn't lay right and his shape was distorted. He looked sick. And he was sitting right on my front year.
I didn't want to get too close to him but I wanted to get a better look at him. So I went out the back door and came up behind him. I startled him and he took flight, right at me. Fortunately, he missed me and I ran back inside the house.
I called the game commission and the person answering the phone didn't seem to sound interested in my concern about this sick bird which I now decided had rabies. So I had to up my concern level so that I could get some action.
"I need someone to come and get this bird as he is blocking me in my house and I am afraid to go out and I have to get to the pharmacy to get my medicine."
That seemed to do it. I was told that someone would be here within the hour. I was relieved and when I checked on the status of the bird, he was now gone. DAMN!!!
Within 20 minutes, a large truck pulled up to my house. A man in a uniform got out and knocked on the door.
"Ma'am, you reported a sick wild bird?"
"Yes, but he's gone now," I answered with frustration.
"What did he look like?"
"He was a Canada Goose". And these words no sooner came out of my mouth when I looked and saw he had returned. I pointed to him.
"That bird is sick. He needs to be put down," said the game warden.
"Yup, that's why I called. He is terrorizing the neighborhood."
"Well, we will have to do it here. You may not want to watch", he warned me.
I popped back in to my house and watched as the game warden and his partner chased this bird around my yard. They caught him and I heard a loud thump. The bird looked dead in the game warden's arms. But he wasn't. He was just knocked out.
"Ma'am, we are going to take him and release him back in to the wild".
"No, no", I said, "you have to put him down. He is sick and he is a nuisance. He needs to be put down", I insisted.
I think the guy was relieved that I was so amenable to killing this ugly bird. I do think that was his intention but he just didn't want to do it in front of me. I gave him permission to just do it. And so he did. He snapped that bird's neck and threw the body in the truck and took off. As they drove off, I called to my friend who couldn't watch any of this. "Don't worry, RIP is now resting in peace. We can go back to the beach."
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