Mother goose and her three goslings made it to the river on Monday evening after a harrowing journey (Image Credit: Susan Duncan)

By Chad Klassen

HAPPY ENDING

Mother goose and goslings find way to Thompson River with help from city, KFR

May 3, 2022 | 12:33 PM

KAMLOOPS — The mother goose and her three goslings are safe and sound.

With the help of Kamloops Fire Rescue and Community Service Officers (CSO), the family is home in the Thompson River.

It became quite the journey from the rooftop of Royal Inland Hospital. After the goslings fell off, they eventually made their way under a fence and appeared to be on their way to Peterson Creek Park.

However, hours later they wound up on the sidewalk in front of AhhYaY Wellness Cafe. The mother goose, not knowing what to do, started tapping on the front door to get in.

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“So we were closing the cafe around 4:30 and there was a little bit of a commotion by the front door,” explained owner of AhhYay Wellness Cafe Natalie Peace-Young. “It was a Canadian goose, a mama goose with three little chicks who were seeming to really want to come in the front door. There were people behind her that I later realized were Good Samaritans trying to keep her off the road. She seemed like she just wanted safety in the cafe, and they kept asking if they could come in.”

So owner Natalie Peace-Young let the family in and the mother goose settled right in.

The mother goose and her three babies waiting to get into AhhYaY Wellness Cafe on Monday evening (Image Credit: Susan Duncan)

“We opened the door and she literally walked right in like she owned the place and she calmed right down,” said Peace-Young. “We’ve got a back room, a little meeting room, and the chicks had been shivering a little bit, maybe just from fright, but they came in and they hunkered right down.”

The family was in the cafe for two hours. Peace-Young called Kamloops Fire Rescue’s non-emergency line for help.

It just so happens that KFR dispatcher Anne-Marie Jacobs, who has a hobby farm in Chase with geese, picks up the phone.

“She wanted to know if we could help her out, so what I did is called our Community Services Officer (CSO) and let him know what was happening and he said he could go help,” she said. “And I made sure to give him a little tip on how to wrangle a goose.” “It was funny because the stars aligned. Of all the people to answer the phone, it was someone who knew how to wrangle a goose.”

Firefighters and the CSO showed up to the cafe with a kennel and slowly were able to get the geese in. From there, they were put in the fire truck and driven down to Riverside Park and released into the Thompson River.

“It was a breath of fresh air to be honest — to be able to help and have an opportunity to be part of something good,” said Jacobs.

The geese family swam off into the sunset to put a heartwarming end to the story.