Papa Goose: One Year, Seven Goslings, and the Flight of My Life by Michael Quetting & Stacey O'Brien & Jane Billinghurst

Author:Michael Quetting & Stacey O'Brien & Jane Billinghurst
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Greystone Books
Published: 2018-09-12T23:00:00+00:00

I SIT ON THE GRASS WITH A CAN OF BEER AND NOTICE that I still have the same peaceful feeling inside me that I had at the airfield. Is this the new me?

Gloria waddles over, checks out my bare feet, and is a little disappointed that they don’t have any shoelaces. After she’s subjected my toes to an extensive nibble, she settles down under my thigh and begins her sleepy-time whistle. The sound has an almost hypnotic effect on me. I shut my eyes. But only for five seconds. Then I feel a bill at my eyebrow. It’s Maddin, who’s usually very careful, so I don’t stop him. My eyebrows and hair could do with a good cleaning anyway. I don’t know what vermin Maddin picks out of my hair, but after a while he cuddles up to my head.

I’m always so happy when I’m up close with these birds. It would, of course, be odd and somehow off if I were to whisper to Maddin right now, “I love you, Maddin,” so I don’t. People would probably finally find me certifiable if I did that. I can just see myself in a white-walled room devoid of sharp objects sitting opposite a psychiatrist who’s asking me with the utmost patience, “Mr. Quetting. You call yourself ‘Goose Michael,’ is that right?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“And you say you love your geese? Could you explain that one more time?”

I’d rather not, but my feelings for the geese really do tend in this direction. I feel Maddin’s soft feathers and his breath right by my ear. The strange thing is that not only do I sense that I love the geese, but I also sense that they reciprocate this feeling in some way.

I consider how animal conservationists often appeal to our emotions to promote their cause: “Help the animals. They’re so adorable and sweet and pretty.” But that’s from a human perspective. The animals are here to meet our needs. But what if we could enrich our lives so much more by meeting theirs? Perhaps that way we could renew our connection with nature, which in the end would make us much happier. Is that such a crazy idea?

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