Our story begins before the birth of Pepsi and it will bring us to his current adventures.
Life on Queensgate Rd. was peaceful and ideal. The lake behind our house was beautiful and full of ducks and geese of all kinds. My two favorites were a couple of Trumpet Geese that I called George and Martha. George was pretty mean during the spring mating, nesting season and I was the only person he did not try to peck. To use the word peck to describe George's bite is certainly an inadequate description. He left huge purple whelps on a lot of legs in the neighborhood. There were a few children that really deserved to get a peck from old George. It was a common thing for the kids to taunt him with sticks and get him in a fury. At times he got so upset that the site of those kids would set him off and I have seen him get a running start with wings a flapping heading straight for those kids. So of course parents complained that George was dangerous and should be done away with. I knew is was inevitable. George and Martha would at some time disappear and of course that is exactly what happened. First Martha and then George. NO TRACE. I had my suspicions who the culprits were.
The time I spent with George and Martha was a valuable learning time for me. Martha, bless her heart would always find a place in one of my flower beds to make her nest and would sit on that nest until the eggs would simple explode from rot. Martha never experienced the hatching of her eggs.
As a mom, I could imagine her grief as we would force her away from her nest to clean it out. She was so angry at us and cried out for hours. Craig our vet explained that good old George had a fertility problem. Well, they were a happy couple just the same and George was a great mate who took really good care of Martha.
George spent a lot of time on my front porch pecking on my glass door begging for food. He was quite the pan handler. My house had a lot of windows in the back and if he could not see me through the front door he would go around to the back and peck on the back windows. I will add here that wherever geese walk there is always a large amount of droppings left behind. Although there was a lot of fun with the geese, it could get very messy and I washed down the sidewalks constantly.
The first year Martha made her nest in the front flower bed was really hectic. I kept a broom handy to hold George at bay when my grand-kids,(Tyler and Kalie) or any visitors came to the front door. He was such a warrior on Martha's behalf. He was the champion of the family. You know, the way men are meant to be. Funny how animals can be more gallant and heroic than some humans.
Why am I telling you about George and Martha? Because being up close and personal with them gave me a great insight to their life and it taught me the really beautiful side of nature that pertains to wild foul.
After George and Martha disappeared it was a little easier to leave my beautiful lake home and move to a new home and a new adventure. That story we will begin next time.
LS
