We’re maintaining peace with the geese and the skunks
- Laura Moore: Housebroken
- March 31, 2019
- 1004
While walking around our place the other day, I came upon a pair of Canada geese lounging in the grass in our rear yard. They seemed to be checking out our place as a future home for their family.
I have no idea why our yard is appealing to them. We are not very close to a body of water, though it does get to be a bit swampy here after a rain. The geese seemed friendly enough to make nice neighbors, but of course they hadn’t met our dogs. That was interesting.
When I took the dogs out on their leads to meet the geese, it did not go well. The dogs pitched a fit, jumping and barking. The geese also pitched a fit, squawking and flapping their big wings.
None of them liked what the others were doing, so all took off in opposite directions. This does not bode well for future relations. I took our dogs inside to calm down, and the geese flew a few houses down, looking for a quieter homesite.
This is all for the best. Though both dogs and geese can hear each other, they can’t see each other, so peace is maintained. Our house is not fond of fits, and though she loves animals, she prefers them to get along. My Taller Half and I feel the same way, so this might work out well. We will get to visit the geese and the goslings when they arrive, but we don’t have to worry about conflicts that get out of hand.
Now all we have to worry about is the skunk that may have made a home under our shed. We haven’t seen the animal, but he does fill the night air with his aroma. We certainly don’t want to antagonize the critter, but we really want to discourage it from making our shed its permanent home.
Unfortunately I may be the reason for the skunk being here. We have a neighborhood cat that I leave out food for now and again. Skunks evidently like cat food. Fortunately for us, that same cat does not have a sharing nature, so he and skunk are at odds. Trust me we are rooting for the cat.