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"Aggie Anderson moved last week and
someone new will be moving into her house," Cockles said, rolling his blue
ball across the grass.
"Och aye. That’s a grand house but
she’s let it go, hasn’t she? The garden is over run with weeds and tall
grass. It needs a gardener," Mussels said.
"Aye, it does. Why don’t we go up
there are have a look around before the new people move in?" Cockles
suggested. "Let me put my ball back in the house," he said. He grabbed it
with his mouth, disappeared and came back a few minutes later. The two
dogs ran up the street towards the house. As they neared it, they could
see the tall grasses and flowering weeds. "What a mess!" They stopped in
front of the path that leads to the door. "I wonder if she’s got anything
growing in her vegetable garden?" Cockles asked.
"There’s only one way to find out.
Follow me," Mussels replied and ran into the weeds.
Just then they heard this loud
noise. HONK! HONK! HONK! A goose, nearly twice the size of Mussels, came
running towards them; its head was down low and its beak was wide open.
The dogs turned and ran back to the street. "Yikes! It’s a goose and it’s
mad. It seems to be defending the house." They stood panting. The goose
came running closer, honking loudly. HONK! HONK! HONK!
"Let’s get out of here," Cockles
barked and they ran back home.
"What’s a goose doing on Barra? It
must be on its way south or something. I’m sure it’ll be gone tomorrow,"
Mussels sighed. "I hope it’s gone tomorrow." The dogs spent the rest of
the day resting and when morning came, they headed back up to Aggie’s old
house.
"Shhhhh. Let’s just creep up there
so the goose won’t see us, in case its still there," Cockles whispered.
They ran silently through the weeds into the back garden.
Suddenly they heard that familiar
HONK! HONK! HONK! The goose charged at them, spitting and trying to bite
them. "It’s going to nip my tail," Mussels shouted, tucking it under him
and running quickly.
"Just run and don’t stop until we’re
at the street," Cockles said, running as fast as his sausage-like body
would take him.
They stopped when they knew they
were safe. "What’s with the goose? Why is it attacking us? It doesn’t own
that house. I wonder if the goose belongs to the new people and it’s their
watch-dog goose?" Mussels said.
"I just want it to go away so we can
check out Aggie’s garden for some food," Cockles sighed.
"We’ll come back tomorrow. I’ve got
a plan," Mussels winked. They headed home and when the sun rose, they were
back out, standing in front of the house. "You go around that way and I’ll
go this way. The goose can’t attack both of us at the same time. Head for
the garden and see what’s there and then meet me back here," Mussels said,
pointing at the side of the house.
Cockles nodded and ran to the left.
Mussels ran to the right. Cockles crept silently into the back garden. He
saw the goose. It was standing in the bushes, alert and ready to attack.
Mussels walked on his tiptoes through the weeds and came to the back of
the house. HONK! HONK! HONK! The goose spotted Mussels and came running
towards him. While it was chasing Mussels, Cockles ran into the vegetable
garden and had a look around. That’s when he saw the baby goslings. There
were five of them, covered with fluffy white feathers and had tiny black
bills. They chirped curiously at Cockles. "So that’s why the goose is
attacking us," he said, smiling. "She’s protecting her babies." Cockles
sat down and soon the goslings were crawling all over him. They felt so
soft. The mother goose came running back to her babies and saw Cockles.
Cockles jumped up. He was terrified that she’d bite him, but when she saw
how much her babies were enjoying him, she stood back and watched. Cockles
sat back down and played with the goslings.
A few minutes later, Mussels came
walking into the back garden. He was worried about Cockles. He saw him
playing with the baby geese and that the mother wasn’t attacking him. She
turned her long neck and saw Mussels, but she didn’t attack him. He came
closer and closer and finally stood next to Cockles. The little balls of
fluff came over to him and tried to play with his tail. He sat on the
ground and let them. One bit his tail a bit too hard and he jumped, but
most of the time they didn’t hurt him.
All day long the dogs stayed and
played with the goslings. The mother goose, feeling relaxed went off to
have a drink and find something to eat while the dogs babysat. Every day
for the next few weeks the dogs went down to Aggie’s house. The goslings
got bigger and bigger and started to fly.
"I can’t wait to see the wee ones
this morning," Cockles said as the dogs ran towards Aggies.
When the arrived, they were
surprised to see that there were people moving furniture and boxes into
the house. "What’s this?" Mussels said.
"People are moving into Aggie’s
house. They look nice though, don’t they?" Cockles smiled.
"Yes, but what about the wee ones.
Let’s go and see if they are all right. We don’t want them getting
furniture dropped on them," Mussels worried.
When they went into the back garden,
they ran over to the babies but they weren’t there. The mother goose was
gone and the babies were gone. They could see no sign of them. "Where are
they?" Cockles sighed.
"They must have been frightened by
the new people moving in and gone somewhere else," Mussels answered.
"Maybe they just flew away. They
were getting to be good little flyers," Cockles pouted.
The dogs walked home, feeling sad
and blue. "I’ll miss them," Mussels pined.
"Me too," Cockles added. When they
got home they lay on the grass and tried to doze off. Cockles chewed on
his blue ball but neither of them could shake their sadness.
HONK! HONK! HONK! Honk! Honk! Honk!
Cockles and Mussels looked up. The mother goose and the babies were flying
overhead. "It’s them! It’s them!" Mussels barked. The geese circled around
the dogs and were high in the air. They could hear their honks. Cockles
and Mussels waved goodbye and the geese turned and flew south, heading
toward warmer weather. "Goodbye," Mussels shouted.
"Goodbye," Cockles added.
"I think they’ll be back next year,"
Mussels said. "Come on. Let’s play some ball. We’ll see them again. In
fact, let’s go back to Aggie’s house and get acquainted with the new
people. They might have a cat that we could chase up a tree," Mussels
snickered.
"Hee, hee, hee," Cockles laughed and
the dogs ran up the street. |
