Today I set out on my marathon training walk with the goal in mind of walking twelve miles. Twelve miles consists of walking 6 times around Eric's parents' complex. I walk there a) because I am so very bored of walking around my complex, one loop equaling only a half mile, and b) because there are sidewalks in their housing complex. Sidewalks are, for some reason, a rarity in South Carolina so it's almost impossible to walk anywhere here without risking getting run over by a big rig truck, or a drunk driver.
Anyway, I was on the first half of my 5th lap, when all of a sudden I see a commotion in the street. There is a gaggle of geese, and a couple of cars stopped in the road. I look, and I see a goose lying in the street. I cannot tell if it's alive or dead- I didn't have my specs on, for distance. By now I am thinking, "oh no," because if it's dead, I cannot walk around and look at a poor dead goose in the street, and if it's alive, I have to help it. (I have been known to rescue animals, and I just cannot bear to have an animal suffer, no way around it, I just can't help but help them!!)
Well, thank goodness, the goose was alive, but injured. Apparently a woman in a bright blue Mercedes was speeding, hit the goose, and just kept on speeding. (poor goose!) A woman had stopped, and there was a man in a work truck that was nice enough to move the goose to the side of the road. The woman said she would call the DNR to see if they would come and pick up the goose. The only problem with the DNR is that for sure they would euthanize the goose. I told them I would try to call someone, too. I called my vet because they run a program called the NOAH program which takes in injured animals, wildlife included, and try to rehabilitate them. If they can't rehab them, they euthanize them, but at least they give it a try.
I called my vet and they said they would be happy to take the poor goose, but the goose would have to get there first. There lies the problem. I was walking, and couple of miles from home. How on earth would I get this goose to the vet? I called everywhere! The DNR, the environmental agency, some numbers to animal rescue places that the vet gave me, all to no avail. Some people couldn't take birds, some people were out of town, the DNR had some gas mileage cap (?), another person couldn't get to the area until the next day. I wasn't going to leave this poor goose to suffer until tomorrow. I wouldn't be able to live with myself.
Luckily a woman drove by, and slowed down. She asked if the goose was hit, and I explained everything, and she said she had a dog crate that she could get. Fabulous! Shortly after the woman who went home to call the DNR came back, she was waiting for them to call her back, but she wanted to check on the goose. I explained to her what was going on, and then, the goose- droopy wing and limpy leg, started to walk in the street and then just stood there. There was no way that I was going to guard this goose, then let it get hit by another car. So I had to play traffic cop for a little bit, then the woman with the crate came back! And she came back in a pickup truck! Now we just had to get the goose in the crate. So, after some chasing and wrestling, we got the goose in the crate, and the nice woman took my new buddy, the goose to (hopefully) get fixed. How nice. I am so glad, because otherwise I would've had to wait for Eric to get back from school.
Phew! So, long story short, I only finished five laps today, on account of an incident with a goose.
*I honestly thought about taking a picture of the goose, but then I decided not to. I didn't want to exploit the poor guy. He had been through a lot. :(
Posts
