When we spotted 2 geese on the pond a couple of weeks ago, we rounded up our two dogs to try to shoo them off. Mayzie and Baylie are great at flushing the geese off the ground, but when the geese swim into the middle of the pond, the dogs are useless. Mayzie, the Bearded Collie, gets waterlogged with all her long hair, and Baylie, the goldendoodle, who should love the water, is still a puppy, and hasn’t yet discovered the joy of swimming.
So after a great flurry of wings, the two geese settled down on the water and I’m sure I distinctly heard them say, “Nyah, Nyah, Nyah, Nyah, Nyah.”
My DH and I started hurling rocks into the water with the objective of creaming them making a big splash near the geese to frighten them off. My underhanded girly lob is not accurate or strong enough to land a rock more than about 30 feet from the shore, so the geese were quite at ease and amused, I am sure. Finally admitting defeat, we headed back to the house to order a couple of slingshots.
As luck would have it, Saturday, we were rewarded with an opportunity for some target practice. Rounding up our roustabouts, we headed down to the shooting gallery. Mayzie and Baylie once again raced around the bank to where the geese were resting, the male standing next to the prone female.
As soon as the geese were safely settled on the pond, we saw several little yellow balls bob to the surface, pop pop pop. The geese had 5 little goslings.
These must be the pair that I saw nesting on Gooney Creek last week and they were on a walk about with their new little family. Hopefully they aren’t planning on moving in.
Disclaimer: No geese were harmed in the making of this blog. We actually love the geese, we just don’t love having them on our pond. We would never do anything to harm the geese, we just want to aggravate them enough that they don’t want to stay.
Aw, so cute! Understandably irritating, but cute all the same
I haven’t heard of a goldendoodle before, is it a golden retriever/poodle cross?
Yep, exactly. The size of the poodle sire determines the size of the doodle. Ours is a cross between a golden retriever and a standard poodle. Some get as big as 100 pounds, but I’m hoping ours will be closer to 60. But she’s only 6 months old, and already 43 pounds. Time will tell. But I keep telling myself, more dog, more to hug.