Gertie The Goose, Foresaken Love

Gertie & Quest

Each year, a pair of Canada Geese return to our pond in the early Spring. Their arrival is always a very noisy affair with much splashing and honking before the more serious business of nesting begins. Mom and Pop geese diligently collect the nesting material and then, while pop guards, mom gets down to laying and hatching her eggs. Last year they successfully hatched and raised one gosling which returned with the adults this year. As an adolescent we fully expected true love to take its course and the band of three to become four but Gertie, as we have affectionately named him/her had other plans. Gertie the Canadian Goose has become besotted with our 19.1 hand Shire horse gelding. Each morning, Gertie takes up his station in the pasture opposite the barn, when we take the horses out to their pasture, he apparently can hardly control his excitement. As we reach the gate to the horses field Gertie takes off and flying at barely head height lands within inches of the gelding’s feet. All day the lovelorn goose follows Quest around the field never further than a few inches from the huge horse. When the horses return to the barn in the evening, Gertie follows longingly down the road until the horses disappear and then he flies over the barn to wait for their return in the morning. Hopefully, Gertie will recover from his unrequited love and next Spring will return with a feathered playmate, for now we and our neighbors are enjoying watching Gertie and his huge love affair.

---