The Great Goose Incident: A #RFPSInc Tale

The sun rises on another day, and luckily for me, another week begins. It almost wasn't the case, but I suppose there's more work to do before it's time to rest. 

Everything started off strange - the whole day was just off. Don't ask me how or why, I could just feel it, and I probably made it worse by projecting that outwards and them picking up on it.

Let me back up a couple weeks to another morning. I went out back to let the dogs out and check on the birds, only to find a duck in a dog's mouth. It's happened once before with a small dog, but this was no small dog. I yelled at it, and it dropped the duck like I wanted. The duck was okay (he's still here), but instead of taking off like you'd expect, it came at me. I won't go into many details, but it bit my hand before slinking away in defeat.


Fast forward to recently - everything was fine, but then two weeks after the fact, my hand started to really hurt. The bite pain never really went away, but it wasn't anything to worry about... until it was. Once that pain came on, my fingers swelled up and turned green awfully fast. It looked rough (heck, it's still bothering me to type this), but with antibiotics and trying to baby that hand, it does seem to be getting better finally.

Don't misinterpret this story - I'm definitely a werewolf now. That means stay away from me at night. I'm not sure which strain I got yet, so best just stay away during the day as well. Heck, just plain stay away. Better to be safe than sorry! Haha

I was the latest case they had to haul in like a dog to make sure I was up to date on all my shots. I'd be having more problems for sure if anything serious was involved, but I'm not one to like telling people that a dog nearly took me out. It was one of the biggest things I've ever had to fight - not by choice, but I couldn't just let it have a free duck. One with angel wing who has been here for years. Hates my guts, but I still don't want him to get eaten. I don't want to get eaten either, though.

I've heard a million times now, "Oh, I'm sure it wasn't really that big. You just don't know dogs, Brad, and it scared you." Well, that part's right - it did scare me, but I'm no stranger to big dogs. We have two Great Danes that aren't very small themselves. I used to have wolf huskies. I know a little about dogs, but I've never seen one quite like this one that made me scared of what would happen if it ever came back. Thankfully, some time has passed, but anything that can smash a gate that's been keeping humans at bay for years... I don't even want to risk being unarmed the next time.

At any rate, back to the original injury story. I thought someone was going to unplug the phone - it's driving me crazy. While they go unplug the phone so the ringing stops, I'm now wondering: is that even a thing anymore? Can it be taken off the hook? Do people still get busy signals? So many technology jumps and way too many phones ringing around here - just throw it away.

Coming home, we spotted Lou Lou the goose out and about in the neighborhood, trying to hoof it back to his old ghetto again through miles of ghetto in between. He'd never make it, so we easily grabbed him up and brought him back. I think this may be his last attempt - he's been practicing wing flaps and running the yard. As long as he can fly away, I'll be okay with it.

That was the day before, and we got busy, so we said that skinny goose is in the garage - we'll just toss Lou in there with her for the night and get his wing in the morning. Well, morning came around, and I'm in the backyard letting the dogs out as usual when 4 or 5 geese just take off from our koi pond. I was confused for a second, thinking how sad it was that all our handicapped geese that have been around so long just up and left us. Then I remembered - wait, our handicapped geese can't fly, heck, some of them can't even see! They were all still there; they just had a party. These partiers forgot the rule about having everyone gone before your parents wake up. Or nobody ever taught them because, well, they're geese.

I continued around to take care of my chicken duties, walking through the walkways between the parrot aviaries, when within inches of my face, a hawk comes from a tree and flies right at me. Then it landed nearby and just stared at me. I know it was staring at me - none of the pigeons were out, and that little thing couldn't take a chicken or anything that big. I had the strangest feeling that one of the nearby hawks I've taken in to get help lately was its kin and it saw and remembers me. Do they? I'm betting they do because I often see them lurking about trying to get a pigeon. The pigeons are faster and much more maneuverable in the air than them. One even chased a pigeon right through its gate door where the pigeon didn't even slow down, just kind of turned diagonal to clear the doorway - and the hawk thought it could too, but nope. Hawk down.
I do get sidetracked, but that's all part of the story, and even so, I've gone back and reread things many times over only to find all that rambling somehow did all tie together. Don't ask me how - I only type it. The goal is to spew words so fast that I don't have time to think. Type so fast and never slow to correct or edit as you go; that is only to be done at the end, and then if you can't decipher what was trying to be said, you make it up. I'm just playing - I try to tell a tale in my own way, and I do hear I'm long-winded at times. Probably true, but how else do you get all the points across? For me, writing it down kind of relieves it from my mind. It is written down and saved so I don't have to dwell on it, worry, be scared, or anything else any longer because it is filed away in the deep catacombs with pictures from way back in 2010. Which is currently where I am in that organization project.

Well, back to the story - it's just so darn hard to focus with this phone always ringing here. Lou Lou needed a wing trim to keep him from hopping the fence and waddling back home. Got it - I know right where to pick this up. 

Tara and I went into the garage where Lou Lou was sitting on a storage tote of food with skinny goose. So I snagged him up to do a trim - I'm super fast about it, in and out, but this time... I don't know, it was just different. All the weird stuff happening, the feel in the air, me maybe not paying attention, Lou maybe showing off for a goose visitor female? I don't know, but he slipped away from me and decided to hit me with a good 5 or 6 wing flaps, and he got me with the good hard spot of the wing. 

I've been wing slapped many times - a pigeon almost broke my hand with one. If they get you just right, it can really smart. Well, this one downright hurt. I couldn't figure out why a simple wing flap would hurt so bad. Then the blood started pouring down my head and face. It took me a bit to think about how I used to have a pair of scissors in my hand. Where did they go? Well, I guess the goose who is among my closest friends drove those scissors into my head like a hammer and put a nice slash cut in my head to top it all off.

Luckily, I had an ER nurse right there to stop the bleeding and get me back on track. After a full day of scans and sleeping in a hospital chair, the verdict came in: either the brain would grow back, or I could afford to lose a little here and there. But my coordination - when does that come back? On a recent duck chase, I missed 5 or 6 excellent shots at it where normal me would have had it. I just couldn't quite get there, and not because that duck was anything special. 

Heck, during the chase it bounced off a car windshield, got hit by a truck doing 50 miles an hour (but they were going the same direction so it just kind of surfed the front) until it flew safely to the grass. Then to top it all off, some kids were helping and chased it out between some apartments, and I hit the darn thing and it bounced off my windshield and landed way up in a tree. A duck in a tree - hehe, that just sounds funny. Anyways, that's another story for another day.

I got mad that I couldn't get my body to do what I was telling it to do. It's supposed to get better, and it is - just not fast enough for me. It's still on the lamb though; I just got another call about it last night. All these phones ringing are driving me bonkers, and it's hard to field so many things coming in at the same time.

So I'm supposed to be programming an AI to help me keep up. Tracking volunteers, calls coming in, triage, closest asset, resources needed to complete the task, and things like that. It's on hold until I heal up and get caught up though. If a digital project goes uncompleted, it is kind of like things are disorganized in my life. It feels like laundry piling up. If you stay on top of it, you always have nice clean folded laundry waiting for you, easy to find and look at. You just feel better overall than if you walk in and have to pick through a pile of dirty laundry while walking on dirty laundry.

That's the best way for me to explain whatever it is that causes my brain to not shut off. It's like there is always stress, anxiety, and maybe even some depression as long as there is an unorganized room that you dread to return to. That room is so messy you don't even want to go home anymore. That's my head and welcome! Don't stay long - it's really not as fun as I make it sound.

Lou is still loved and no hard feelings. He didn't know he was a murder goose about to join one of the street gangs around here. My fault as always not paying enough attention. Or maybe even talking too much... Nah, what do they know? I think this was just right. Those that made it to this very end - thank you, I think you and I could be friends. Only a few even care to understand.

After yelling for someone to just take the damn phone off the hook I have now been informed that first of all I�m a dumbass because we have no phone wires, phone jacks, or phones attached to walls here. Which brings up the second of all what year is this again now?

I didn't want to tell this story of goose versus man, but it doesn't matter my plan - my life is guided by another man. Now I know why mom never let me rhyme or play with scissors. Well, there were a few other instances... Lol, it was scary but I�m fine and going to be fine but I didn�t want to share it until I knew for sure enjoy your day everyone.

#RFPSInc #WildlifeRescue #SanctuaryLife

Visit Broadbent Wildlife Sanctuaries page here...
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