GOOSE HERDING AT MIDNIGHT

Those of you who are on the various yahoogroups lists with me already know that much of my life is spent chasing one animal or another here on the Rock ‘n Tree Ranch and elsewhere.  Last night was no exception to that rule.

However, some of you may not be familiar with the personalities and habits of geese and the herd dogs that guard them.  So let me give you a little background here. 

Geese are very intelligent birds, unlike guinea fowl—but that’s a story for another day.  They are for the most part the world’s best parents.  The love and care they give their young not only when they are little but as adults is a lesson many humans should learn.

Like humans, geese also have distinctive voices for each individual goose.  When you are familiar with your geese you soon learn their voices just as you would learn the voices of the people you know.  Unlike humans it is the hens that generally have the deeper voices, while the males can shrill and hit quite high notes that will hurt your ears if they are very stressed.  You also learn the different tones of their voices that mean happiness, fear, and concern. 

The term pecking order comes from the way poultry handles their hierarchy in their flock. They tend to respect their elders, but the young will battle to be in control of their own level in the pecking order.

In our flock we have the three elders.  These are the twin brother white Embdens Frodo and Magellan.  Pigwidgeon, a big old grey Toulouse gander .  Frodo is the elder statesman of the lot and all the younger geese follow his lead. 

Frodo’s mate is the daughter of Pigwidgeon  and his one and only mate Penelope, more on this in a moment, Serenity. by being of the second generation from Piggie and the mate to Fro-Fro she is of extremely high rank as well.

Piggie, as  Pigwidgeon is generally called, mated with Penny and they had our first successful hatch over nine years ago.  When Penny was broody on her second hatch she lost her life trying to defend her young.  Piggie has mourned her nine long years and has never found a new mate, despite all our efforts to supply him with suitable candidates.  He instead keeps a watchful eye on all the generations of their original offspring that have came since then. As each new round of goslings is hatched Grandpa Piggie helps in their raising and defends them without fail.  In my mind’s eye I often picture Piggie wearing small round wire framed eye glasses.  This is because he seems so old and wise.

Serenity is a good Mama, as her mother was.  She has successfully hatched and raised several goslings over the years.  Last year she hatched four, but one was weak from the beginning and the changes in weather caused it to become ill and die.  She mourned it for days.  Her remaining three Huey, Dewey and Louie she still shepherds around along with Bad Boy and Snowball two orphans she adopted when their own parents died last year. She treats all five yearlings the same.

Mama geese are extremely protective of their eggs and young.  You can read about one such battle for the safety of a hen’s eggs in “Popcorn, the Mom-goose”.

Our flock is guarded 24/7 by the “girls”.  The girls are both rescued dogs with no special training other than their own natural instincts.  I’ve spoke of the girls often.  The alpha is Jolie Marie, an Aussie Collie mix with one brown eye and one blue eye.  Jolie, aka: Jo Jo, is a natural self taught herder.  Generally she can successfully herd the birds where we need them without trouble, mainly because the birds know she’s boss.  However, she does sometimes get frustrated with a panicked bird or a stubborn one.  Generally she will put her long pointy nose on their feathered backside and push them where she wants them.  Other times she will bark at them to order them to behave.

She spends her nights among the birds when they are sleeping outside a pen for one reason or another and outside the pen gate when they are penned.  When one is broody in an unsafe area she stays by it as a guardian every night, no matter the weather.  These are her birds, just ask her.

All night long she and the “enforcer” Misty Georgia, a bouncy loving shepherd mix, patrol keeping the coyotes, possums, and coons away.  While Jolie is a great herder, Georgie is not.  She tries, but she’s too bouncy for the job.  So she uses her energies to chase away the bad guys.

You can see photos of this cast of characters and some of the other 14 geese can be seen at the right.

So now on to last night’s event.

As I have previously said we tend to go to bed with the chickens around here because both men have to get up so early each work day.  So both men were sound asleep and I was dozing when I started hearing “Euh, Euh, Euh,” a pause then a repeat over and over.  I knew the voice and I knew immediately it was Serenity.  Serenity who was suppose to be broody under the front porch on several eggs.  It was nearly 11:30 pm, why was I hearing her under my bedroom window?  She never leaves a nest at night when broody. 

Listening closer I could hear Frodo softly answering from the safety of the garden pen.  Her voice was full of fear and sadness. His shrill was full of concern.  I jumped out of bed to try and peer out the bedroom window to verify what I thought I was hearing.  No luck, the soft grey goose could not be seen in the deep darkness outside. 

I could make out the white silhouette of Frodo in the pen and hear Piggie calling to Serenity as well. 

I could also hear both girls barking an intruder alert.

I scrambled into clothes, grabbed my cell phone and went to get a flashlight.  I saw no reason to wake the guys up if the situation was what I expected.  I felt confident I could handle it by myself, well with Jolie’s help.

The front room flashlight was not where it belonged so I rushed through the house to the sunroom and grabbed the one from there.  Back through the house and headed out the front door.  Listening intently for sounds of terror before I could get there as I went.

As soon as I opened the front door I knew I was right, something had attacked Serenity on her nest.  I knew this before I even checked under the porch because Jolie was not at her post on the porch where she had been sleeping since Serenity went broody a few nights earlier.

 A quick check under the front porch verified what I thought.  Something had definitely attacked the nest, the eggs were gone and so was Serenity.  I could hear her near the garden and hurried that direction to see if she was injured. 

She was racing back and forth up and down the perimeter of the fenced garden trying frantically to get to her mate and father who were racing up and down with her on the inside of the fence.  Just past where she was a coyote yelped.  The whole flock came to life and started screaming “Coyote, coyote!”

Out of nowhere Jolie placed her cold nose against my hand to let me know she was there.  Georgia could be heard barking warnings to the coyotes that these were her birds and they were to leave the area NOW!

I spoke quietly to Serenity as I slowly approached the grief stricken panicked bird.  She wouldn’t let me near her so I instead opened the gate planning on trying to simply herd her through it as we would normally do.  That was my plan, but by this time Serenity was inconsolable and had lost all reason. 

Jolie then tried to put her up, but Serenity wouldn’t listen to Jolie either.  Frustrated Jo-Jo  tried to nose the goose toward the gate, a tactic that generally works.

Instead Serenity, who must of thought it was the coyote after her, started flogging Jolie.  Jolie maintained her cool and did not snap at the goose as most animals would have.  She instead backed up and came to my side to wait for the goose to settle down. 

About that time there was another coyote yelp from near the gate side of the garden and the now totally panicked hen took off in the opposite direction in full out flight mode.  Heading toward the clear cut and certain death if she got that far.

“Retrieve Jolie, don’t let her get in the woods.”  I said and Jolie sped off full tilt after the bird, passing her in ease within a few seconds.  She turned her back toward the garden, but the bird went to the coop side of the shanty rather than the way she needed to go.  She was now back in a safe zone, cornered and even more frantic.

Frodo and Piggie ran to that side of the garden pen and stood talking to her, obviously trying to calm her down.  I could almost hear them saying “let Mom hug you, she’ll put you in the pen.”

Hugging is our term for picking up the bird and hugging them to our body to carefully carry them to safety or to tend to a problem.  See the Mud Wrestling post for another adventure that involved hugging a goose.

Serenity, who is named that because she is usually a very calm and relaxed bird, was having nothing of it. 

Jolie was NOT happy at this turn of the events, the goose was NOT where she had told it to go.  Her frustration was starting to wear on her. I called her to my side and told her to let the bird calm down.

Jolie laid down on her belly at my side with a loud sigh of disgust and waited for me to say “put her up” to release her from this frustrating turn of events.

Instead I said “what do you say Jo, do you think we need to call in back-up?”  

Jolie turned her head toward the sounds of Georgia removing coyotes from the area and then back at me.  “No, you know George is doing her job and she’s not good at herding even though she tries real hard.  I think Sean, what do you think?”

Jolie cocked her ears at me as if to say yes.  I then called my son, waking him from a sound sleep.  I apologized for waking him, then explained the situation.  He said he’d be right there.  I relayed this to Jolie, who sighed, glanced at the bird, and laid her head on her front paws to wait.

I did not call my husband because I knew his phone was on the charger in another room and he’d never hear it.  I could not leave the bird to go get him, besides if I knew Sean well we wouldn’t need a third human.

Sean joined us amazingly fast.  He has a very calming effect on animals and he soon had the bird where she was no longer flailing at the fence or trying to climb it.  The two ganders on the inside of the fence also calmed.  Once he had talked her into a calmed state I tried to herd her away from the corner she was in to go to the far side of the long run she’d have to go around to get to safety.  She immediately panicked again.

This is when I decided to leave the area, taking Jolie with me.  I left my son to talk with the bird some more.  Shortly there after he said “headed your way, keep Jolie calm.”

Jolie obeyed my voice commands to “help me, keep her from going to the woods” and as my son herded Serenity toward the open gate.  We took our post on the far side of the gate where the coyote had previously been to show the goose we were protecting her from that side.

He could get Serenity within a few feet of the gate, but every time she’d panic at the last minute and turn to run the opposite direction. We figure the coyote had probably marked the area and that was why she was so frantic.

Once again ds started speaking to the now exhausted goose, telling her to sit still and he’d hug her and put her in with Frodo and Piggie.  Almost immediately the large goose settled at his feet tucking her wings to her side in a “pick me up” pose.

Sean gently picked her up and carried her the six feet or so to the gate and through it.  He then said “there you go sweet heart, go to your family.” As he gently set her down on the ground.

You didn’t have to tell Serenity twice.  She ran straight toward her mate, intertwining her long neck with his while her father and five yearlings crowded around her checking her out for any damage. 

We latched the gate and praised the dogs for a job well done. Jolie responded by curling up near the gate to guard it the rest of the night, while Georgia went on patrol.

A check of the nest verified the eggs were gone, and Serenity had fled only after all was lost.  The nest was in an area Jolie was too big to get into, and that is why she had been barking for help.

We are sad we lost the eggs, but thrilled we still have Serenity.  Jan who managed to get back to bed about 12:45 am in OK

 

THE GREAT PIG CHASE

Or how to nearly get heat exhaustion on a hot summer’s day.

As all such tales begin “I had a plan…”  I wasn’t feeling well last night so I went to bed without showering, telling myself “I’ll get up at 6 in the morning and then I’ll plant those two new heirloom plants in the garden before it gets too hot tomorrow,  Once they are planted and I’ve fed the animals then I’ll shower.” This turned out to be a mistake.  What had been a simple plan ended up being a very smelly, sweaty me.

You know what they say about the best laid plans…first I didn’t get up until 8, I simply overslept.  Generally I’m up early but for some reason I snoozed two hours longer than I should have.  As soon as I realized how late it was I threw on the previous day’s clothes and grabbed the tomato and pepper plants I had purchased with my “will be reimbursed, mandatory purchase” mystery shopping money along with the Epsom Salts and calcium pill for the tomato plant and headed to the garden.

The plan being I’d stick the two plants in the ground, pour some water on them, feed the animals and scoot back into the house immediately because it was already in the mid 80’s and the temperature was climbing quickly. Today’s high is expected to be 106.

While planting the tomato plant I happened to glance up at the nearby grapevines to check to see if the grapes were ripe yet.  NO, in fact they were starting to resemble raisins! 

What the?  Ds had watered them the night before, but the ground was stone dry.  “Okay, so I’ll put a soaker on them.” I thought.  Only the hose for that was not connected to the house.  Great, that one is behind the air conditioner in Sid Snake’s territory.   Sid is a large rat snake that hangs out near the air conditioner to catch rodents and frogs every summer.  He’s harmless and he helps keep the mice down so we leave Sid be.  Only he has a habit of startling me and I don’t like that.

Gingerly I peeked all around the unit and satisfied myself that Sid was not home at the moment and worked with the various hoses and splitters in the area until I found the right one for the hose I needed.  15 minutes later I was back in the weed infested garden area trying to figure out why the soaker wasn’t getting water.  I finally got that hose going and decided while there I’d go ahead and set the sprinkler up for the main garden.  This is where I ran into troubles and an hour later ds called wanting to know where I was.  I was surprised when he called because he works nights and at that early hour has usually just gotten to bed and is unconscious to the daylight world.  The day before had been his day off and he’d gone to bed early so he could get up early and help me with chores.

He immediately came out to help me and scold me for being out in the heat for so long.  I’ve gone down for the count twice in the last 20 years due to heat, so I have to be VERY cautious with heat.  When he came out he brought me a large glass of ice water and sent me to the shade while he argued with the sprinkler system.  The temperature was climbing steadily.  Finally he gave up and set the sprinkler hose near the newly planted plants to dribble into the ground around them and moved the soaking hose to the next grape plant.  Then he escorted me “firmly” indoors.

As we sat cooling down we discussed various things and just as ds mentioned he’d got a text from C the other day wondering how we were he received another one from her.  It read “Are you home? W let the pig out and the babysitter can’t catch it. I’m in Tulsa”

C is a good neighbor who is always there every time we need her, so we couldn’t say no.

Grabbing my son’s dew rag, which at our house is a large muslin tea towel that has been twisted into a roll and then is tied around the forehead, we took off for the mile or so drive to C’s. 

The teenage babysitter was woefully sitting on C’s front porch holding a handful of bread and looking very upset.  She said the pig, a young pot belly pig, had gone into the woods past the pig pens when W had let both pigs out.  The larger of the two had ran back into the pen, but they couldn’t catch the little one and weren’t even sure where it was at that point. 

I told her to keep the four dogs there and we’d drive up the road to see if we could spot it.  I then asked 8 year old W and his 6 year old sister, G, if they had a bucket of feed that the pig really liked I could take with me.  The babysitter gave me the handful of soft bread she was clutching stating “C said that it loves bread.”  I then asked the two kids “when you feed your piggy do you call it in a special way?”  Both shook their head then the girl said “Daddy claps his hands when he feeds them.”  That was what we needed to know.  I reminded them to keep the dogs there and if the pig showed back up to not run at it or scream.

Then riding in the truck with the air conditioning vent blowing on my still much overheated body ds and I cruised the country road at a slow speed looking for any sign of the little black and white pig in the heavy woods.  We drove the two miles to the highway to make sure it wasn’t there and then doubled back. 

No pig, great the temperatures outside the air conditioned truck was now in the 90’s and climbing. We spotted a place in the barbed wire fence that was down in the area I was betting we’d find the terrified piglet.  My son told me to stay in the truck until he spotted the pig and he’d go through the fence and walk the woods just past the easement clearing. 

Grabbing his dew rag he plopped it over his tightly curled red pony tail and ducked through the broken barbed wire fence.  Moments later he disappeared into the woods.

Within a minute he called to say the baby sitter was hollering something at him and asked me to drive down to see what she was saying. 

When I arrived she was very excited.  G was running around like a wild child and hollering. So much for the don’t run or scream edict. W was no where to be seen.  I found out later he’d been sent to the house for a time out because he had first let the pig out, then second would NOT listen to the baby sitter when she told him to not run toward the pig. 

W is a very intelligent little boy, but he has self control issues so the baby sitter had been entirely proper in removing him from the situation.  I reminded G to not holler telling her the baby pig was scared and just like when she was scared and her Mommy talked to her in a soft voice she needed to talk to the baby pig in a soft voice.  G settled down immediately and asked how she could get her little pig.  I told her to get some more bread because the pig would like some and then if she saw the pig again to throw a small piece to it and lead it back to pen and to clap her hands softly like her Daddy did.  She immediately grabbed bread from the sitter and ran into the weeds headed for the woods where she’d seen her pig.  I grimaced as she did because she was dressed in a swim suit and I could see the weeds scratching her little legs.  The baby sitter immediately ran after her youngest charge.

The dogs raced after her.  Because we feed their dogs when C’s family  travels they all know me and my come here whistle.  So I whistled and all came running.  I locked them in the front yard and then trudged down the road to see if I could get in front of the pig and help herd it back toward the house.  At that point no one had eyes on the piglet.

Meanwhile in the heavy woods my son, looking like a very warm redheaded warrior of days gone by, was slowly making his way back toward the house searching the area that G had said she had seen the pig in.  He was watching closely for snakes and other problems because this is a wildlife area, but still very nearly stepped on a hen turkey who suddenly sprang up and took flight in front of him.  She startled him, but then he watched her in awe as she would fly up, then fall down like she was injured, then try to fly again.  He’d seen this tactic by mother birds before so he checked the ground where she’d originally taken flight from.  Sure enough, there was a ground nest of brown speckled turkey eggs not far from his feet.

As he gazed at the nest he heard a rustling in the woods next to him.  Praying it was the piglet and not our friendly neighborhood cougar he slowly turned and looked toward the sound.  For the longest time he saw nothing, then “what was that?” “There it is again.” Focusing his eyes in the deep shade he finally realized it was a pig tail. 

There laying in the shade panting was the terrified piglet.  He threw bread scraps toward it and it eagerly gulped them down.  He slowly edged toward the little guy thinking if he could get close enough to it he might be able to grab it.   Fighting off images of the pig feeding scene in “Hannibal” he forced himself to think “Babe” and remember the last time he’d chased a pig at his great Uncle’s as a teenager.  That pig had been much bigger and all the cousins had worked together to get it into the truck, but still the pig never tried to bite anyone, so it was a good thought. He definitely did not want bit.

Just as he made his grab the pig suddenly scooted past him running toward the clearing where the baby sitter and I were wading waist high weeds in our shorts and wishing we had jeans on. By that time I had stick tights where no one wants them.  OUCH!

G, who had been sent to get a bowl of water and a banana for the pig, had just got back to where we were and I told her to stay outside to the fence to keep the pig from getting out and across the road to woods we would most definitely lose him in.  She obeyed for a long time.  I asked her the pigs name.  She said she didn’t know, that it was new.

My son texted C and asked her.  We were both thinking if we could call it by name it might calm down.  By now the pig was frantic and was having nothing to do with any of us.  He’d catch glimpses of us and then run another direction. 

We spread out in a search grid pattern and slowly worked our way back toward it’s pen.  No one could see the pig anywhere.  Where did it go?  C texted back “Rudy.” 

My son who  can calm any animal down, he’s like a whisper in that way, started softly call “Rudy, here baby, Rudy.”  No response.

G climbed a tree to see if she could spot her “baby”, somehow the dogs had got out of the yard and were back to “help”.  I spent most of my time whistling to the dogs and praising them when they came.  As I stood petting the pit bull I caught a glimpse of something running down the side of the pig pen.

At first I thought it was the first pig, that had been returned to the pen immediately, but then I realized it was the one we were looking for.  It rounded the corner and was sprinting down the driveway headed for the road. I turned to tell G to run fast back to the driveway to keep the pig out of the road, or and to not let  cross it to the woods on the other side. 

That’s when I discovered G had crawled through the fence and was no longer where I had told her to be.  She scrambled to try to get her pig, with the baby sitter fast on her heels. 

The black and white piglet was in full out run, it was in the clear and headed for FREEDOM and there was no way they were going to get there in time.  We were all fast on the move, but it looked like we were about to lose the piglet for certain.

Suddenly out of nowhere appeared a much larger black and white critter easily loping along.  Lassie, the untrained border collie was letting her instincts kick in.  You would have thought she had been professionally trained.  She circled the piglet and gently cut it off from its run for freedom.  Then working it as, if she’d been herding the sheep she was bred for all her life, she slowly worked the pig back to the gate to the pen where G was waiting to let it in.  I couldn’t see G at that point, but my son could and he told me the little girl had suddenly realized the dog KNEW exactly what to do and had gone to open the gate for the stressed piglet  when Lassie got it to that point.

The dog we’d all worked to keep away from the piglet so hard saved the day.  It took her less than 10 seconds to stop the escape of the pig and to put it where it belonged.  Then proudly set down by the gate to accept praise from everyone. 

We all gave Lassie all the loving and praise she so richly deserved.  It was now 100 degrees.

Inside the pen the older pig was busily scolding the truant piglet, who was trying to hide under the older sow.  I am certain it was saying “those mean people tried to TOUCH me!”

As soon as we were certain the piglet was where it should be the babysitter said “W is in SOOOOO much trouble!  I’ve got stickers everywhere and I’m way too hot!”

I told her that once everyone calmed down someone needed to explain to W that he couldn’t be letting the piglet out because it was so dangerous for not only the piglet, but for everyone concerned due to the poisonous snakes in the area and the heat. 

We stayed long enough for G to show us how she could swim and do handstands in the above the ground pool then we drove quickly home.

Back at the house I moved the soaking hose while my son fixed us lemonade. 

Inside I took the lemonade with thanks.  My son said “Mom I love you, but you REEK!  Go take a shower!.”

He didn’t have to tell me twice.  I started the shower warm, and then steadily turned the temperature down to cool my body down without shocking it.  I was exhausted and hungry.  Not only had I not had breakfast, and it was now nearly noon, but we hadn’t fed the animals yet.  Cheez!

  Feeling slightly better I wandered to the kitchen looking for nutrition.  There I remembered quickly what a good son I have.  He had more lemonade and toasted cheese sandwiches waiting on me.  He’d also already feed the animals.  I am so blessed!

So as we set enjoying a good lunch of sandwiches and lemonade and cooling down we sang the praises of how important a good farm dog is.  God bless Lassie or we would have still been out in 100 degree heat. 

We also agreed we’d learned a lesson.  Never underestimate the instincts of a herding dog.

Jan who owns three GOOD farm dogs, but was still surprised by Lassie’s skill in OK