Goosie

Getting used to the animal life on Erraid…our closest neighbours to our lovely wee Pier Cottage are the hens, sheep and The Goose. Resident on the Island for over 30 years, this bird is something to be reckoned with !

The goose tends to hiss and honk at most people going by. It was a bit disconcerting when we were trying to settle into our new house and there is this loud guard goose at our door not letting us in to our new home!
Our 10 year old daughter Bella was lucky enough to attend an animal communication funshop for children in August with Anna Breytenbach – a lovely woman who has done amazing work in her native South Africa and many other places around the globe, talking to the animals.
As soon as Bella saw Goosie she had a different approach to the rest of us, she immediately put into practice all she had learnt from Anna, she stopped, went quiet and shut her eyes. The goose was a little wary at first, but settled down from her intimidating honking and started wagging at her.
I told Bella I was going to write a blog post about Goosie and she could add something if she likes and this is what she wrote:

“Goosie is almost like our pet. Every morning, as we go up to the morning meeting, we hear a loud “honk!” We know it’s Goosie. As we pass him he quietens down a bit, but if we get too close, he honks at us, asking us to please leave his territory. I back away, standing on the other side of the track. I close my eyes, wishing him a good morning. As I open my eyes and wave to him, he stretches, unfolding his strong grey wings just the way I love. He honks at me, demanding my attention. I grin as I walk on up the hill. Goosie sees me leave and gives me one last flap and a parting honk. I love our Goosie”.

And sure enough, after three weeks on Erraid,  I think we all have now come to love Goosie,and Bella has done amazing work to make him part of the family, so much so that when her Grandpa came to visit for the week, he arrived today and was immediately talking about Goosie as “our friend”!