A Little of This and That

The picture with this article is one of my favorites of a family of geese. Franklin and Hannah's two are growing so fast. The baby white goose is almost white. When he was hatched he was the color of egg yolks. It has been incredibly hot here even on the lake which I am told is supposed to make things a bit cooler, but it doesn't feel any cooler


It seems that all of a sudden, there is a plethera of ducks on the lake. Everyday another duck shows up with 5-10 ducklings. Ducks are shy about nothing. It takes the pushy ducks to get the Cananda geese to aquiesce and come ashore for dinner if the least bit of distraction is going on. Of course I guess I wouldn't consider a huge black Labrador Retriever with the mind of a puppy and the body of a large parking lot dumpster a mere distraction. This character has been over several times. He has a collar, tags, and what looks suspiciously like one of those underground fence receivers on the collar. It might be one of those no-bark collars that gives the dog a jolt if he starts barking loudly. Either way, it doesn't work because here he is again wanting so badly to play with someone. Since he is so big and so playful, you can't catch him long enough to read his tags. The geese of course all tumble into the lake to get away, but wait, here comes the big lug of a dog jumping in to play, splashing and carrying on while the geese swim this way and that . A well choreographed dance it is.


Years ago, when I was still married, we rented a house on a lake in Michigan. It wasn't a big fancy place I can tell you that, but in Michigan it is hard not to live on, by ,or around lakes. You cannot move in a straight line to your destination because of detours around lakes. We had this very large dog, a Giant Schnauzer. Giant for obvious reasons, and Schnauzer because they look like little schnauzers. That's where the resemblance abruptly halts.

We obtained this girl from the local animal shelter in St. Louis. She was sitting so forlornly in the corner of her cell, quiet, reserved, polite, obedient, well-groomed, with a fresh cut. She was all black which sort of lent an air of dignity to her otherwise large size. The ticket describing the reason for her being up for adoption was only one word: Traveling. Well I could see where this might prove difficult with such a large dog, so we took this at face value. As it was, she turned out to possess that unique and frustrating habit of "traveling" the neighborhood when we would leave the house. She could escape anything. We decided traveling referred to her habits not her former owners.


Back on the point, this dog loved to jump in the lake. The lake was stocked and shared the water with a couple of otters or muskrats or something in that category, and a Canada goose family. When the family hatched their brood for that year, Wicky was so excited. She could never get enough play or any one or thing to play with. She immediately jumped in to go play. Geese are particularly adept at protecting their babies but when this big black dog with her gigantic nose and mouthful of pearly whites came at them they became irate and bit her on the nose not just once but a lot. No matter to Wicky, she was having fun and so must they since they were playing back. It would end when I would scream for her to come home. Sometimes she did and sometimes not but it always ended with a bruised snout, a soft coat, and the aroma of dead fish. I guess the geese got used to her as they returned every year to the little lake in Michigan.


And so , I will be glad when hatching season is at an end and the protecting can ease up. The almost constant bickering and fighting that goes on around a family is amusing and yet so nerve wracking. What it must be like to live where the soundproofing is little and the occupants are loud and always arguing. I know sometimes at night if an outbreak of disturbance occurs, in that fleeting moment between awake and sleep, the thought of strangling comes to mind.

In the chronologic scheme of life, spring and summer do not last forever, but in the Oklahoma scheme of life, it does. Hopefully, the laying and hatching is not temperature driven or this could get to be a very long summer.


Wicky, by the way, went to live with a farmer with plenty of room for her to socialize on.

Before I go, I would be remiss if I did not mention the new .gifs on this post. They were a gift from a friend of mine especially for this blog. Her name is Camilla Eriksson and she does the icons, emoticons and e-cards for the Care2 network. You can see alot of her work at her website Millan Net. If you stop by, tell her I said hello.

Until next time.