Another New Arrival
First off, duck who-does-not-have-a-name-yet is still doing well and making gradual improvements. And we’re getting close on a name. Sometimes it takes a while. She will go to the vet on Friday for a re-check and may need another week before surgery. We’ll see.
But in other news, another new kid arrived today. This one is a goose.
Meet Monroe. Monroe is a goose, who along with her mate, were dumped at Magnuson Park a few weeks ago. They were dumped at a federally-protected wildlife wetlands area, which is no place for two domestic geese. It’s also no place for dogs to be off leash, but people do it.
Monroe was attacked by a dog two days ago (according to passers-by) and today was not moving at all.
Two people from the animal shelter and the parks department called a wildlife rescue place which called me, and I drove over to help catch Monroe. It turned out it wasn’t very hard as the goose doesn’t move at all. We just picked her up and placed her in a carrier.
Unfortunately we were not able to catch her mate yet. The mate is not injured and was very wary of getting too close. We’re hoping he’ll come close to a parks department guy he likes within the next week so we can grab him and reunite the geese.
Monroe weighs 3.34kg or 7.6lbs. To put that in perspective, O’Malley weighs about 13lbs and Toro roo weighs 17lbs. So the goose is pretty small for a goose. That is part of why we think she’s female.
The dog bite to Monroe the goose crushed the bone in her pelvis, but it’s in an area that might be able to heal. It’s to the tail end of her, past her legs, so it’s possible that staying immobile, taking antibiotics and pain/anti-inflammatories will help the pelvis heal on its own.
Here’s another look. I’ve tried to highlight the broken bone area. It’s possible that a pin could be placed in there to better set the bone, but because it’s also an infected dog bite and it’s down past the legs, the vet would like to wait and see how she does first.
So Monroe hung out at the vet’s office for a bit while I ran to a pharmacy to get new medication for the duck and got a space set up at home for the new new arrival.
Now Monroe is set up in a carrier on my dining room table near the rest of the indoor crew. She isn’t eating or drinking yet, so that’s not a great sign. But she has medication, so hopefully after a good night’s sleep she’ll perk up and start feeling a little better. We hope so.
Good night to Monroe and her funny chin mole. If she does okay the next few days, she’ll return to the vet for a re-check on the same day and time that we take in the duck-who-shall-soon-choose-a-name.
That’s it from here for tonight.
Quacks and clucks, and honks,
Tiff & the flock
P.S. A note about Magnuson Park and the Wetlands: Those wetlands are federally-protected areas meant to help biodiversity and help naturally clean the water system. They are not a dumping ground for domestic waterfowl, and certainly not a playground for toddlers or an off-leash area for dogs. There is an off-leash area mere YARDS from the wetlands, yet people let their dogs run wild through the delicate wetlands. It’s such a disrespectful misuse of the area that I can no longer visit it because it makes me sad and furious to watch self-involved, entitled people tramp all over the place and let their toddlers throw rocks at birds and their dogs chase the birds. Please have some respect and consideration for wildlife and parks.
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