Goose for Dinner?

While working on the house as we have been over the last 2 months, we've been outside more than we've been inside.  There have been times we've just had to stop and watch nature or something that was new to us.  This place is truly different!  Yesterday, as Mark was working on the basement windows, about ten Canadian geese flew over the house and landed in our yard.  They started out in the field and slowly waddled closer and closer, eating as they moved.  They seemed to be interested in us, not afraid, just curious. Then we got to watch how our cats dealt with them.  They had never seen geese before, especially up close.  These geese were about twice or three times the size of our cats and we knew they could chase and hurt the cats if attacked.

We watched as Cleo came out of the barn door, sat, and watched them for a couple of minutes.  She then, VERY SLOWLY, crept toward them, stalking them.  The alpha male goose that was standing guard, saw her right away and kept his eye on her, but didn't move or sound a warning to the gaggle.  Mark had quietly called me over to watch as soon as Cleo came to the barn door - we stood and watched this scene for almost 10 minutes.  I did have my camera, so I was able to take a few photos and video of this scene.

We got to watch the curiosity and respect between these animals.  Cleo stalk them but Tea, on the other hand, just walked right up to them, bold as brass.  She moved steadily and with interest. The very strange part was that they accepted Tea and allowed her to get closer than we thought they would. At one point, they did not even move away - Tea just sat and watched them for quite a while.  We went back to work and periodically glanced up.  The cats, finally OK with their presence, went out into the field looking for mice or something they could hunt.

You can see Tea sitting in the foreground of the photo - look how close they let her get.

We were happy to see that our cats had enough sense not to chase or attack the geese - I really didn't want to stop and take them to the vets office.  I also did not want goose for dinner!