TOWNSHEND — May 8: Tommy, our gosling, came as an unexpected delivery.
A Canada goose, only two to three days old, he was found by employees of the Snow Goose Inn in Dover. He was cold and had been left for dead.
Lisa Thomas, a friend, didn't know what kind of “duck” he was.
I thought he was a grey goose. Max, my husband, went online and found he was a Canada goose.
I called Fred Homer, a wildlife rehabilitator in Williamsville, to ask his advice, knowing that we're not allowed to keep wild animals. He advised that I needed to release Tommy when he was fully feathered.
The first night, Grace, my 13-year-old daughter, wanted Tommy to sleep with her, but because of the light to keep him warm and the noise he made as he cried for her, he spent the night in the garage.
May 9: Five baby chicks arrived. Now Tommy isn't alone. He sleeps with them, and he really enjoys their company.
We take Tommy out for walks. He follows us around and eats grass. Grace really loves him, but we all know when he has all his feathers, we will be letting him go into the Retreat Meadows.
I took Tommy to the brook in our yard for a swim, and I had to get in with him to make him stay. He loved the water, but didn't want to stay in. He wanted to be with me. He climbed out and followed me to the garage.
Grace loves taking him out for his daily walks. She checks on him morning and night.
May 16: Tommy has grown two sizes. The baby chicks think Tommy is their mother. Whatever move he makes, they do the same.
Tommy came from the brook after a swim. He was still wet, and he got into the box with the chicks and shook off. So did the chicks.
While I was watching him swim one day, he did this funny thing with his feet. It was as though he were trying to make the water cloudy. Then, he would dunk under as far as he could. He would also dive way under the water.
The chicks look up to him for their every move. The chicks are getting their feathers, but not Tommy. He still has lots of down.
Eating grass is his main thing, besides following us around.
May 24: Tommy was released yesterday, back to Snow Goose Lake where Lisa and her friends had found him. Grace, Lisa, her husband, and I all went.
To our surprise, Tommy's family was still there: his six brothers and sisters, and both parents. You could just tell they were his family by the way they treated him; they did not ignore him, but they kept their distance. There were also two other families of Canada geese, much younger than Tommy's family.
Tommy was afraid of the water at first; this was not his brook. It was a huge lake with other geese like him. All he wanted to do was to be with me, his mother goose.
I talked to him several times about joining his family. When Grace went to the car, he followed her.
We stayed with him an hour and a half, hoping he would join his family. But after several attempts, we all knew we must leave or he would never do it.
Lisa and Jim went to their car. Grace got into the Jeep, watching and waiting to see what I would do with him.
I sat with him for several moments, talking to him softly about being back home. After several minutes with him at my side, I picked him up and tossed him in the lake. Then, I ran to my car as fast as I could.
I didn't look back until we were driving up the road. I could see Tommy swimming in the middle of the lake. He didn't seem lost or confused. He must have known it was time to go.
Grace and I drove around the lake one more time to see if Tommy was OK. He was just there, swimming.
I wondered all night, hoping he had made it through. In the morning I called Lisa. Jim had gone to check on him last night. He was still swimming in the middle of the lake.
They went again this morning, and he was sitting on the shore eating grass. I was glad to hear he was doing OK and that he'd made it through his first night.
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Now I can remember only the good times we had each morning and night as we watched Tommy running through rain puddles, and jumping up and down with webbed feet that were too big for his small body. I remember his down turning into beautiful feathers, and his squeaks becoming a honk, like a teenage boy's changing voice.
Tommy loved his baby chicks so much that he would suck their tail feathers. He always protected the baby chicks from the other hens.
Every night he would go into his pen with the chicks, and then he would wait for me to come get him to graze on grass, worms, and seed pods. Whenever I was out of sight, he would call for me, never too far to hear my voice.
He always came running, flapping his long, gray wings.
Tommy was certainly a joy for me. We loved to sit in the grass together. He felt very comfortable around me. I will miss our daily trips to the brook, watching him swim under the water like a prehistoric bird, and seeing him jump out when he'd had enough.
I only hope Tommy joins his family again and lives a great long life out in the world with his relatives.