Carlton's Place

This past week on thelake has been busy, eventful, and a lesson on life. The picture above is a picture of Carlton, one of my good friends and neighbors. He is one of the young (about a year to guess) unattached male geese. He is trusting, and friendly and kind to the others. In short, he is a gentleman goose.

Many of the family groups have had their hatches and they are growing fast. The other day, however, there were 2 small goslings that were being ostracised by everyone in the goose community. I don't know why, but they were forced to swim on the lake alone which is a virtual death sentence. There are some hefty turtles in the lake and they nip goslings by their feet and under they go. Probably why when the family swims, they never just float in the water when they have goslings on board. None of the humans on shore could reach the pair of tiny fuzz balls and by the following day, they were gone. Why they were ostracised is anyone's guess. Why are some human children scapegoats in an abusive family and others aren't?

One of the families with 13 goslings visited my patio area the other night. I did not have my camera ready and missed a perfectly wonderful opportunity. I had some lettuce in side from making a salad and so I offered the family some greens which they let the goslings eat first and then they ate.

The family that had to move their eggs because of the strays pestering them seems to have lost the entire clutch. The mother, who I named Sweet pea would always stop in front of my patio and look as I talked to her. Then moved on. Lately, they go by with Sweetpea more often. But now she visits her old nest outside my window. She rearranges the nest some then moves on. So my guess is she is not sitting on eggs any longer. No babies this year for her.

I have not seen the stray cat that I had the dilemma over last week. My best guess is that he ate drank slept for two days and then possibly died from his massive infections with a full stomach and the memory of two days of pleasure in an otherwise lousy life. Strangely, I miss him more than two days should warrant. But there it is, in need of some kindness and food and water and of course a pat on the head. He deserved it, he needed it and he got it.

As for me, I still am planning and looking at my many packed boxes and promising that tomorrow, I will get them organized and unpacked. Truth be told, I lived so long with boxes full and empty, I have adjusted by making paths to the essential areas and am perfectly happy making plans and making more plans to organize. I need some motivation.

More later.

(originally published 5/21/06)