Over the weekend, Thomas and I both had long runs. I did 20 miles with my friends and he did 14 by himself (he was invited to join us but wasn't up to running 20 -- or waiting for me to finish -- so he went alone.)
He was around mile 7 of his run and had just run onto the back part of a dead end road that exits onto a busy street. He heard some flapping, so turned his head to see a goose barreling down on him! The goose landed right by Thomas, who thought the goose was going to start hissing at him in an effort to defend his territory. But that's not what happened.
Instead, the goose started running next to him! Thomas said it was like having a running partner, with the goose keeping pace. Thomas would slow down, so would the goose; Thomas would speed up, the goose would do so by incorporating some wing flapping into his running. This went on for about 4 tenths of a mile, but Thomas was rapidly approaching the busy intersection.
He didn't want to lead the goose to danger, so he did a U-turn, and the two of them ran towards the dead end as Thomas mulled his options. He hadn't decided what the best course of action would be if the goose continued to follow him, when suddenly the goose returned to where he had come from.
For almost a mile, Thomas had a surreal running partner!
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3 comments:
That's insane! Do you think the goose was defending an absurd amount of territory? Or he was domesticated?
I didn't witness this, but according to Thomas, the goose was not aggressive in any way, so he doesn't think it was territory defense. (That's what he thought it was originally, when the goose was flying towards him.)
He also said that the goose was older and large -- it obviously wasn't a juvenile. (It was a Canada Goose.)
My thought was that maybe someone had tried to raise him as a pet and let him in their yard when the poop/mess/smell got to be too much.
But why would he go running with him? It was so strange! Thomas was worried I wasn't going to believe his story!
Also, it's on his normal route, so he (and we, together) had done this route dozens of times already this year, with no sign of the goose. So strange!
Not as odd as you might think . . .
http://www.hpdblog.com/2010/07/something-fowl-at-houston-police.html
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