Lost a dear friend

[SachsGS]

Rufus,my giant white Emden goose had a jammer yesterday and keeled over right in front of me.He was a devoted and loyal friend to the end and I will miss him dearly.

Rufus came into my life 4 and 1/2 years ago by way of a co worker and the proposition was simple,either I take him or my co worker's father was going to eat Rufus.The goose came with three sidekicks,two hideously obese domestic Mallards and one Indian Runner who was a feathered copy of Charles Manson.

Moe the Indian Runner was a psychotic individual who had the nasty habit of chasing away Curly the Mallard's ducklings so that she would come back into heat and he could jump her bones again.The ducklings would die without their mother's care and it was through this tragedy that I gained a little more insight into the human condition.

One morning I entered the barn to find Rufus had grabbed Moe by the scruff of the neck and was twirling him around like a rag doll.I guess that big white goose had had enough of the duck's transgressions and was teaching him a thing or two.Rufus raised those ducklings himself and it was quite a sight to see him walk those tiny ducklings to the creek every morning.

I saw qualities of selflessness and loyalty in Rufus that we normally only ascribe to humanity and indeed he has treated me better then most of my other friends.Rufus leaves behind a wife Petunia and a nest full of goose eggs.Farewell and happy duck ponds my friend!

[Recovered]

Im sorry for your loss.  I prefer my pets to most people and i completely understand your feelings. Pets love you unconditionally even when others dont.  farewell rufus! 

[Coop]

I'm sorry to hear for your loss. It sounds like Rufus was a pretty cool pet. 

[ford832]

I'm partial to geese myself.Yummy.I hope you at least made good use of him.

[Recovered]

I'm partial to geese myself.Yummy.I hope you at least made good use of him.

......ford....smh.

[evilscientistmoose]

You know, I've been terrorizing message boards for over a decade now, and have seen pretty much anything and everything....but this is the first time I've seen an obituary thread about a goose.

[VintageBlueSmoke]

Brought a tear to my eye...seriously.

[Bioflex]

Sorry to hear about the old Goose, Sachs, having a bit of land here in Australia has seen us get very close to many animals.
I imagine that Geese are like ducks in their behaviour, we had two pet ducks who were awesome animals.
They can be fearless and are very protective of their young.

Nice to hear you gave him a good life and that he had the pleasure of living to a ripe old age.

[MyckMcClung]

Godspeed Rufus.

[ford832]

I'm partial to geese myself.Yummy.I hope you at least made good use of him.

......ford....smh.

Sorry dirty girl but I don't prefer my pets to people-I make a distinction.I also don't ascribe human feelings that a pet doesn't have to them.I may feel bad when a pet dies,but nowhere even close to what I've felt when a family member dies-and they are yummy,I've hunted them for years  

[SachsGS]

We share DNA with every living thing on this planet and the programming that exists in our minds at conception does not differ substantially  from other creatures.I would not draw such a rigid demarcation line between humans and other animals that we inhabit this world with.Rufus was clearly able to distinguish right from wrong and the level of empathy that he displayed in his life towards other beings is sadly lacking in many people I have met.

 I am not religious but there is a fundamental irrationality in human behaviour and human existence and to suggest that this is absent in other creatures is preposterous.I feel we are all in this together and as the native peoples of Canada have always said we had better respect Mother Earth and her children.

That big white goose had been kicked around from home to home before he ended up on my doorstep and it took a long time to gain his trust.Rufus became the most loyal of companions and was a better guard goose then any guard dog I ever had.

[ford832]

I think we'll have to agree to disagree on most of that.Besides,most natives I hear of around here call themselves"the original conservators of wildlife" while cutting protected old growth stands,netting endangered salmon streams and jacking excess amounts of deer and moose they can't possibly use.I have heard that a goose makes a good guard dog though.
Anyone who wants to debate animal rights etc,I'm in.Just start a new thread maybe.

[SachsGS]

Ford,it will take time but eventually instead of blasting them out of the sky you will have geese running around your yard as pets.That cold,hard heart of yours will soften and you will observe the animal kingdom in a new light.

I think it was Sitting Bull who,after successfully battling the U.S. Calvary for many years,stood up in congress and told the assembled audience  what his predictions were if the white settlers didn't change their approach to the environment (nature).150 years later his warnings are chillingly accurate.

[Bioflex]

 I am not religious but there is a fundamental irrationality in human behaviour and human existence and to suggest that this is absent in other creatures is preposterous.I feel we are all in this together and as the native peoples of Canada have always said we had better respect Mother Earth and her children.

I couldn't agree more.
It is shame many people have such a distinct line between the value they place on humans and then animals, who collectively are all thrown together down the other end.
In terms of DNA we are far closer to chimps and apes as they are to birds, fish or any other mammal for that matter.

Yet, we are the only one's who have the privilege of somehow getting an afterlife?
I have stopped discussing this with religious nuts, how humans (who are just one of millions of living things) who have inhabited the earth for such a tiny amount of time are privvy to something which escapes every other living thing that has and will ever exist is just ridiculous.

[SachsGS]

At one point I was working for a manufacturing company and the way the manufacturing data was organized was that individual parts and assemblies were tied into projects and,as the projects were completed and got buried in "Time",these parts and assemblies were reinvented for new projects.It was easier to quickly sketch,say,a 3" actuator then to rummage through the engineering data to try to find the information on the old one.

When customers started ordering parts for repairs and the quagmire was fully revealed we knew we had to do something.

I suggested a parallel system where parts and subassemblies were organized into groups and a separate sequential numbering system  for actual projects.Projects would draw parts and assemblies from this data base but numerically they would be distinct so no more parts getting lost.

A few years later the mysteries of DNA came fully into the public arena and imagine my astonishment at the structuring of DNA - a "toolbox" of biological data that could be organized in any way to produce life since the dawn of time!

I was merely rehashing a methodology that already existed.And so it seems with mankind,we seem to be,in a mechanical way,simply reinventing what already exists.