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Gertrude and the Best Cove Run EVER!

Blog by Patricia Houlihan - Personal Real Estate Corporation | August 8th, 2013

As you know, I love living in the Cove and the wildlife (except the cougar this year) is part of that...this summer has been even more amazing because of the number of incredible sunrises.....
However, I am not a fan of Canada Geese-they are not "park friendly" and leave disgusting snacks for my dog.
Today I became somewhat of a goose convert-I love Gertrude!

My running partner and I were running back from Cates park to the Cove and saw two women walking with a goose.  As we approached them, we were commenting that we should really have a camera because it was one of the weirdest things we had ever seen.  When we reached them, we asked them if they knew the goose. They said no that it was just walking with them and didn't seem to want to go away.
We kept running and then heard the goose squawking behind us...it was halfway between us and the other women and it apparently could not decide who to go with.  My running partner was wearing a bright green t-shirt so I think it decided we might be more fun....it flew up beside me, dropped onto the ground and started a very fast goose walk.  I then learned my running partner does not like birds-too late.  The goose (who I am by then starting to call Gertrude in my head because its an odd, outcast female goose) lags behind and then flies up to catch us, hitting my running partner lightly with its wing (on purpose I later figured out-this goose has attitude) which freaked her out...I took over the spot next to Gertrude.

My running partner veered off towards her home to escape the goose; I kept going and Gertrude came with me.  At one point going up a small hill, Gertrude lagged behind again so flew up and hit me on the arm with her wing as she had done earlier.  I stopped running and walked so she could keep up.  When we got to the Banbury stairs, Gertrude had to hop down them and she was not impressed-honking at me the whole time....she then flew a bit more and tapped me with her wing again...it was really amazing.
I gave up running and did the rest walking with this very cool goose.  Unfortunately she left me to go home alone when she saw the people at the coffee shop with food......but it was great while it lasted. I have run into bear, deer, owls, etc on my sunrise runs but Gertrude made this beautiful morning run the best ever!
Living in the Cove is really unbeatable!
(and if anyone has a picture of Gertrude or of the elusive cougar, I would love a copy-I am doing a webpage on Cove wildlife) 

Patricia