The Story of Gladys the Goose   

Gladys the Goose

Gladys and her mate used to live up the road from here.  One night a naughty raccoon stole its way into their home and Gladys was left a widow!  Then Gladys relocated to Lavender Spring Ranch where she made herself a new home.  She enjoyed swimming around on the pond and visiting with the fish that swam around her feet.  But she missed her mate terribly. One day she noticed the PVC pipe that emptied water from the well into the pond.  She liked to swim over to the pipe and look inside.  It was just the right height for her to poke her head into it and talk and chatter.  Hearing her own echo coming from inside the pipe she became so excited.  She just knew that she had found a new friend….But try as she may she couldn’t lure him out of the pipe!  Everyday she became more and more frustrated.

So we decided to find better company for her.  Off we went to town and managed to bring back three little baby geese.  They were very tiny and needed to be kept inside the Big Red Barn for a couple of weeks.  When they were strong enough to be set out into the big wide world we took them to Gladys and introduced them to her. 

Our grandchildren, Pauly and Skyler, named them Sunshine, Smokey, and Snowball.  It took only a short while for Gladys to make them feel welcome. Soon she was talking to them in a little chatter  and they would listen very attentively.  She was telling them very important things about life at Lavender Spring Ranch.  For there were hungry little brown foxes that sometimes visited at night.  And she must have told them about those awful raccoons that had no respect for the likes of geese.

During the day she walked with them from the pond out to the big open area where they would nibble away on the tall green grass.  Then without warning she would sound her loud squawking alarm that was a signal of encroaching danger.  This was a test…a very important test for them.  Immediately there was a flurry of geese flapping their wings in a forward direction about two feet off the ground back to the safety of the pond.

The three baby geese soon grew to be “young adults” and by springtime we could tell that Gladys had taken a curious new interest in her family.  We soon realized that Gladys wasn’t Gladys but perhaps she was more of a “George”!  Oh Dear!!

One summer day Uncle Joe, who comes to visit us from Poteet, Texas, came driving up the drive way.  Usually he transports horses to their new owners.  But this time he was on a different mission.  He had come to bring us another addition to our goose family.  It seems they too were in need of a home.  And he couldn’t think of a better place, he said.  And he was hoping we would let them stay.  “My, Oh my!!  Five more geese!  Well, Gladys-George, what do you think of that?”

A Gathering of Geese

Time goes by and they have all been together for a couple of years.  Where ever you see one goose you see all eight geese.  They stay together and as they walk by we say …”There goes Gladys -George and her entourage!”

Eight go together

And now  "Who's that little Guy?

 

 

Two new little ones!!  Welcome to Lavender Spring Ranch!