It was the first day of May, and Rancher was inside the house eating his lunch when he saw something move outside the window in the yard. He looked just in time to see a badger leaving the yard and heading toward the front pasture.
A few hours later, the rancher's 9-year-old son stepped out onto the front porch. He heard small peeping, and looked down just off the porch, and saw a little bird. He scooped it up, and carried it inside while calling to his mother, "I found a duckling!" Did the badger have anything to do with this?
The rancher's wife and 5 small children surrounded the little duckling. They took him outside in the grass, and, assuming that he was starving, brought him bread and water and chick starter feed.
He drank a bit, sniffed at the bread, which he declined, nibbled the grass, and searched for what he wanted most: a mama.
The rancher's wife was happy to oblige him and become his Mother Goose.
They named him Henry/her Henrietta (they must wait and see if an egg is produced).
They took away the chick starter feed, and gave him duck starter instead.
They made sure he had plenty of fresh water and grass.
They read him duck stories.
But then some friends who came over suggested that Henry was not a duckling, but a gosling.
The rancher's wife google-imaged it, and, besides a bunch of unwanted-to-be-seen pictures of a guy named Ryan, it was apparent that, sure enough, Henry is a gosling.
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A Canadian gosling; or Canada gosling, depending on who you talk to.
He hung out with the chicks for a while (they were the same age, after all), but he just didn't seem to fit in.
A broody hen thought that he was getting too close to her chicks (which aren't actually her's, but that's a different story), and pecked his eye. After a little surgery performed by the Rancher, Henry's eye looks normal again.
He is happy to sit in the grass and eat it, and follow anyone around with his cute flapping webbed feet, although, he is a bit shy of little people and their hands.
Maybe one day, perhaps when the weather turns cool, Henry will fly away. Maybe if he (or she) does, she will come back in the Spring. His down is already changing to feathers. It will be interesting to see what happens to this little goose that came to us.
And that brings us to another animal to whom we are the parents, of which I will post about later:
Until then, Happy Sabbath, and...
7 comments:
I'd rather look at a cute little gosling instead of some guy named Ryan, too. Even if he does have a six-pack and all the ladies say he's good looking.
Hey girl...is that a Kangaroo?
xoxo
ok. the whole fam gathered around and we have been trying to figure out which animal that is and the kids think that it is a moose. Daron isn't sure.
jamee
xoxo
What a sweet story! I love your thought and speech bubbles you added to the pics for the gosling too! So funny! He/she is a cutie! Sad about the hen pecking its eye. I think that he came to the right home.
So about the last animal.....its neck and ears are very much like a llama or alpaca, but the nose is like a moose, like Daron said. We'll be anxiously waiting to find out what it is!
Sweet Carrie;
Thank you for yet another sweet, innocent look at life! We enjoyed this post very much.
I also think this animal is a baby moose (moosette??) His eyes, ears, and head shape are that of a moose.
Let us know when you find out. Where did you find him? Where there's a baby, there's a mother.
But that's a post for another day.
Love you.
Mom
Love it! We tell everyone about your new "friend" and Brig now thinks that they belong on every farm;)
I think it's a moose. Am I right?
Katya
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