On Monday mornings, I co-lead the onboarding and orientation process for new hires to our organization. Our organization is quite large and thus we have five buildings on our suburban campus, which sprawls along a four lane road which is really only busy during rush hour. This morning, as I was walking back across the street from the orientation building to my building, I noticed that traffic was abnormally slow and that cars were honking loudly right near the intersection where I was about to cross. As I got closer, I realized why the cars were making such a commotion.
There was a family of Canadian geese, a mommy, a daddy and three little ones, in the middle of the road. My stomach just dropped. I've seen the adult geese hanging around our neighborhood when I go running (remember, I live across the street from my office) and I've always worried about them wandering into the street and getting hit. And now, my worst fears had come true. Here was a beautiful little family of geese in the middle of the road. And even worse, I noticed that the one baby goose was limping. It had been hit and it's tiny little leg was broken. Mother Goose and Father Goose had formed a protective circle of flapping wings and were trying in vain to scoot their little injured one out of harms way with their long, elegant necks, but it was no use. Every time their baby tried to stand, it would fall flat down on it's stomach, it's broken leg unable to support it.
Y'all know how I love my animals. It was so heartbreaking to watch and I couldn't just stand there and do nothing. I darted across the street and stood in front of the family of geese, waving my arms and slapping my folder in an effort to scare the family across the street. I was greeted with hisses and wing flaps from Mother and Father Goose but they started moving closer to the sidewalk with their well babies. A kind soul in an SUV stopped her car in the middle of the road and put on her flashers, blocking any more traffic from coming towards the geese. Still, despite all of my flapping, I knew that the only way the injured baby goose would get out of the road would be if somebody picked it up.
As I was contemplating using my folder to scoop up the baby goose, I realized another motorist had pulled onto the side of the road and was running towards me. Turns out, she works at my organization too. I told her we needed something to wrap and pick it up in and luckily she had a towel in her car. Once she retrieved the towel from her car, we started towards the baby to pick it up. Mother Goose was not having that. I had managed to shoo Father Goose and the two other baby geese onto the sidewalk, but like most Mothers, she had not left her baby's side. So while the other woman tried to scoop up the baby in the towel, I stood between her and the Mother Goose, who was royally pissed off and flapping her wings and hissing very loudly at me.
My co-worker was successful though. She carried the baby over to the grass and sat it down. We were shocked when Mother Goose and Father Goose walked right off without looking back. I guess they figured there was nothing else they could do at that point. We looked at each other and both said, "We can't just leave it here!" Finally, a kindred spirit who loves animals as much as I do! Unfortunately, neither of us knew of any veterinarians in the area (Lola goes to her vet back home in Maryland). I told her, "Wait here, I'll run back to my office and google a vet." She replied, "How about I just drive you over there?" Remember, she had pulled over to help so her car was still right there. I gathered the baby goose in my arms and hopped into her car. She dropped me off in front of my building and I ran to my desk and quickly located a veternarian just down the road. I printed out directions and sent my new friend on her way with the baby goose, after exchanging names and the promise of an update from her.
A few hours later I got an e-mail update:
"he is here in my office! The wild animal rescue is coming to get him :) long story...I am in 5112 if you want to see him" I grabbed my office mate and we ran up to her office to get the scoop. Apparently, veterinarians aren't allowed to treat wild animals. They gave her contact information for a local wildlife rescue so she brought the baby goose back to her office while she waited for them to pick it up. The little goose was the picture of contentment: lounging on a towel in a paper box and gulping water out of a paper cup. I just checked back in and got the final update:
"He was in very good spirits when I last left him...had to put a top on the box he was trying so hard to get up and out...drank lots of water...The wildlife guy was going to pick him up at the vets since he couldn't find my office...so hopefully they took a few minutes to look at him as well. He just had a bad leg...the other one and wings were good!" Sounds like a happy ending to me! I just wonder if they'll release the little guy back to this area to try and find his family once he's recovered or if they'll release him to a safer place. In any case, at least he has a second chance!
P.S. I promise I'm getting to the vacation recap. But really, it's daunting just thinking about how I'm going to remember all of the wonderful things we did and even worse, how I'm going to get it all down on paper! It's coming soon though!
