Basil's Goose is un-cooked!

Basil has a new 'friend'.

Piet, a few weeks old.

Meet Piet the gosling! He (or she) belongs to our neighbours on the corner, they own the local Nursery (Plants that it, not poultry!) and Piet was born (hatched?) there. But, he was bullied by the others and was being pecked and shoved around, so Phillip brought him home for safety.


He was tiny, just a few days out of the egg and spent his time being cuddled and nurtured by their youngest daughter Nicola. We were waiting for Nicola to catch bugs and prepare snails for him, but she drew the line at that and fed him chicken mash.  As he grew, so did the mopping-up operations, from the floor, the bedding, the clothing and the bare feet!

A nonchalant Basil and a larger Piet! 

The first time that Basil came 'whiskers to beak' with Piet was a few days after the gosling had settled in! He follows Nicola everywhere and Basil likes to visit too, so there was a moment when I could see Basil summing up the food and protein value of this small thing! And was it worth the trouble to pick the feathers out of his teeth later! Piet was easily 'catcheable' but their dog Astro made sure that nothing came near him, Alfie included, she rushed out with teeth bared to protect 'her' baby.

Hide and seek, or catch and eat?

Basil was fascinated, this bird didn't fly, but cheerfully peeped and whistled and pulled at the grass and ignored him! Now he is growing his adult plumage and the mopping up has become a larger problem! Every now and then we see one of the family members, usually Phillip, hobbling out of the house to wipe his foot on the grass and wash it off under the hose! Piet has a large cage where he spends his alone time until Nicola gets home, and then he is allowed out to graze and wander around. They take him swimming too, down to the sea as that is our nearest water! When he was really tiny, he used the puddles that were left behind after the winter rain, and happily paddled and splashed and flapped his stumpy wings.

Nicola standing by just in case! Basil arriving!

Yesterday he followed Basil home and the two of them spent some time getting acquainted. Piet is now almost the same size as Basil, and I don't think that Basil would try to tackle him but he still gets that look in his eye and his tail swishes when he gets close! We didn't leave them alone and Nicola was standing by to swoop Piet out of danger.

I can't wait to see Basil's reaction when Phillip brings a kid or a lamb home next time for bottle feeding!