Would YOU Have Noticed Him? (from Janet)

My eyes are ALWAYS open. No matter where I am going, or what I am doing, I am always looking EVERYWHERE to see how I can help out an animal in need.  Because in every town, every day, some place, an animal is waiting to be noticed, to be helped, to be saved, to be rescued.

Today was no different. My husband and I were on our way to grocery shop.  If I hadn’t been looking, I may have never spotted a lone Canada Goose sitting quietly and almost invisibly near a parking lot of a local bank.

It’s rare this time of year to see a Canada Goose by him or herself. Almost always, when you do, it’s because something is wrong.

The something wrong with this Canada Goose was that it looked like he had been hit by a car. 

Sadly, this is not uncommon in this part of town where I live. Canada Geese love the water, and the area by this particular shopping area has ponds and a swamp area. No matter what time of day, there are always Canada Geese crossing the entry roads, causing traffic to stop. And in the summer months, traffic stops happily to allow the Canada Geese families time to get everyone across the street – it can be quite a sight when there is more than one Goose family treking from one side of the road to the other. 

It was very clear that this Canada Goose needed some looking after, and a safe place to convalesce, where he would have easy access to food and water. An injured bird of any kind will have a difficult time surviving if s/he cannot get to food and water easily. This Goose could not fly at all – a death sentence in the winter.

Being so concerned about animals, I have quite the list of rehabbers I can call, depending upon the animal in need. So, a call was made, and within the hour, someone came to net this Goose and bring him to a safe location with a rehabber.

The rehabber was able to walk right up this Goose initially.  Most likely this was because he was injured, tired and just trying to rest. 

It was a slightly different story when the net was brought out. The Goose stood up and tried to walk in the opposite direction of the net, hissing all the time.

If you’ve ever seen a rehabber try to net a Goose, you know it sometimes is not an easy task to accomplish.  Geese are large, and yep, mean – even an injured one.  They can put up quite the struggle, and they can look and sound very intimidating.

It’s easier to catch a Goose against a building – Geese are fast and can be hard to net if they have a wide place to run.  Water is even more challenging.  Once a Goose gets in water, they can swim to an area that you can’t reach. Having a Goose against a building increases the odds of netting him because there is less space for the Goose to go.  So with some gentle cornering, the Goose found his way towards the local bank where we found him.

From there, it took no time at all for a succesful netting.

It may look awful for the Goose, but actually, the netting is soft, and once the Goose was caught, he visibly calmed down and actually sank into the net. He was comfortably transferred to a cage in a warm car.  And we went on with our shopping.

#1 Good thing that came out of this: Happy Ending

#2 Good thing that came out of this: As we were cornering the Goose to net it, a woman in a car drove up, quite upset. She said that she was driving down the main road, and happened to look over at the bank parking lot and saw “some guy” looking like he was trying to harm the Goose. So, she u-turned around to check things out. She was so happy when we explained to her what we were actually doing. It made me feel great to know that there are other’s out there, right in my town, who keep their eyes open and who care about animals enough to JUST DO SOMETHING.  I gave her my contact information – you can never (NEVER) have enough contacts and friends who have the same passion for helping animals in need.

I waited a few hours and called to check up on Goose.  By the way, the rehabber informed me that this Goose was a male.

He had eaten and drank, and had been walking around. The blood was saw on his back and tail were from losing some feathers. His wing was compromised, and we were not sure if the wing was broken yet or not, but he was completely unable to fly.

This Goose will stay with the rehabber until it can fully fly, or through the complete Winter season. Once Spring arrives, if the Goose still is unable to fly, I will be calling some of my other contacts to find a permanent home (sanctuary) where he will always be cared for. 

Tonight it’s very cold, and snowing.  If I hadn’t had my eyes open, this Goose would be spending another night alone, in the cold, covered with snow, hungry and suffering.

Looking around is something we ALL do. We may not always be so super aware of what’s going on around us, but maybe we should.

This is why My eyes are ALWAYS open. No matter where I am going, or what I am doing, I am always looking EVERYWHERE to see how I can help out an animal in need.  Because in every town, every day, some place, an animal is waiting to be noticed, to be helped, to be saved, to be rescued.

Eyes open! It matters. It really does.