ANOTHER STORY ABOUT LIFE IN THE KAROO.....
As I was typing this heading, I made a typo, and it read 'Another story about like in the Karoo'. Everything about the Karoo is about 'like' for me.
Once again I am sitting here unable to download new photographs which is terribly frustrating! Pease be patient with me. Thanks! So I will go on with stories from the Karoo.....
TWO WHITE GATE KEEPERS
A
few months after moving to the Karoo , I decided to acquire
some geese. Soon after New Year, Hannes
and Antoinette kindly arrived with a box and two goslings, approximately two
months old. The first thing that came to
mind when I saw them, was shame, these are seriously ugly ducklings! Their huge bulbous eyes were way too big for
their heads, their rounded bodies resembled babies bottoms in towelling
nappies, and protruding from underneath all this were two greatly oversized
webbed apparitions. The poor
babies. They were the clumsiest things I
had ever met, and although they had been named Jesse and Jasmin (in the hope of
one of each sex), they were mostly called ‘The Galloompheys’.
About
four months prior to the arrival of the goslings, I had acquired two beautiful
and dainty white Holland Quakers from one of the local policemen in town. They were named Jemima and Jake. With the Quakers, the males have a pretty
curl on the top of the tale. It often
occurred to me why Jake would be smaller than Jemima, but I just assumed he
would perhaps be younger.
Once
the Galloomphies arrived on the scene, a very interesting series of events
began to emerge. Jake took it upon
himself to show his authority and make himself Lord and Master of all things
feathered in the garden. The goslings
were disciplined in no uncertain terms by any means and manner. Most importantly of all, the new pond I had
built was duck domain, any gosling wishing to enter, must first beg, plead,
look pathetic, bow and scrape, and then perhaps, maybe on occasion, be allowed
to enter the water.
Then
my Galloompheys grew into two gorgeous geese. They are about four to five times the size of
the ducks, and yet Jake still ruled the roost.
The geese had to beg to have a turn in the pond, and should they not do
so appropriately, they were admonished and evicted under no uncertain
terms. After much frustration from the
bigger birds, they finally thought to hell with it and made a dive for the
water. Jake charged in rushing at each
of them in turn, then they’d jump out, wait a few seconds, then as soon as his
back was turned they were diving back in.
Again, the crazy furore, but as time went on the geese got braver, diving
beneath the surface of the water to resurface elsewhere, and this went on
furiously for some time. Often one would
pop up unaware of where Jake would be and sometimes he would be bounced up on
their back, biting furiously at their neck, falling off, chasing again until it
just all become too much and he submits and allowed them some time to frolic,
before sending them packing again. I
could watch them for hours.
Months
after the arrival of the ducks, on the top of Jemima’s tale, there appeared a
pretty white curl. So now I have Jake the drake, and yes, I also have Jemima
the drake. Oh well, what’s in a name? More than you know.
On
my neighbours boundary there is a high fence with a low gate. For some reason only known to the animal
kingdom, my garden seems an interesting place for all to visit. I used to get terribly annoyed with the geese
at night when they would strike up in noisy protest, yelling loudly enough to
awaken any poor sleeping soul in my road.
One night I decided to get up and see what was causing all the
fuss. There where the geese, chasing off
an intruder of the white furry kind, and since then, each time I have checked
when they have caused a fuss, sure enough, there they are at the gate, fending
off unwelcome creatures of one kind or another.
It
never ceases to amaze me how these feathered friends of ours all have such
individual personalities. Even though
one always copies what the other does, in each pair there is a dominant one,
and of the four, well, Jake was always the boss.
When
I woke up in the morning and opened up for the cats and went out to feed the
others, or if I had been out for the day, I always received a huge greeting of
noise and display upon my return. The
ducks waddle, quacking all the way to the other side of the garden, wiggled
their bums, fluffed out their feathers, made a whole lot more noise just to
make sure they had my attention, and then they took off in flight and landed in
their pond. The geese cottoned on to this
welcoming commotion and so too did the same for their Mum, all for a bit of
attention. I had to tell them all how
clever they were, preening their egos and ending off by telling them that they were
just a bunch of big show offs. I love my animals.
When
I moved from Fraserburg to Prince Albert
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