The Goose is Loose!

by Lee G.

I've never been pooped on by a grackle, or by any bird for that matter. Although it's a wonder, since there were so many sea gulls when I lived in Washington State and I cleaned enough bird poop off of my windshields and house windows.

I did have a couple of encounters with very unfriendly, downright aggressive geese, though.

When my ex and I first moved to Washington, we lived with his dad for a few months before we found our own place.

He had geese. Nasty, offensive, ornery geese. You couldn't go anywhere on the property if the geese were loose because they'd take off after you with a vengeance. I hated those birds.

They were good watch animals, though. If anyone so much as looked onto the property, they'd set to honking, and strangers were chased off if the geese were not in their caged area.

My father-in-law would let them out at night to roam free and put them back in the cage the next morning. Sometimes that was a real romp because the only way they'd go back to their prison was if you tricked them with food.

Occasionally, he would miss one or couldn't get one back in the cage, and the family would either stay in the house or have to carry a shovel to keep the geese at bay.

I'll take grackles over geese any day!