by Denise Calaman

Created on: April 10, 2009   Last Updated: May 20, 2009

"The neighborhood kids have been throwing stones at Frick and Frack," my dad told me with tears in his eyes. "I don't know what to do," he added. Frick and Frack were a mating pair of Canada geese that my dad had living on a pond behind his house. They stuck together like glue because neither one could fly. They were born with bent and twist wing tips; a disease that rehabilitators have nicknamed, "Angel's Wings". We didn't know it at the time but this is a man made genetic condition in waterfowl like geese and ducks due to an increased ingestion of pesticides from fields and golf courses. Parents pass the condition on to their offspring. So when Frick and Frack wondered onto the pond and couldn't leave, my dad quickly bonded to them. Whenever the two geese would see him walk out his backdoor they'd come running because they knew that he had bread for them.

But over time it became increasingly clear to me that Frick and Frack could no longer live on the pond. A snapping turtle about the diameter of a round picnic table had taken up residence in the pond. I spotted him on several occasions eating goose eggs and with Frick and Frack being unable to fly, well it was only a matter of time. The female goose had also developed a large mass under her right wing which left her unable to put her wing down. There are some who would argue, "Leave nature take its course." As hard as it was for him to watch, my dad was one of these people. I felt differently. "Was it nature that caused them to be born with a defect that left them unable to defend themselves in the wild? Was it natural to have stones being hurled at them?" These geese were suffering at the hands of man and it wasn't right. I knew of a wildlife rehabilitator who was willing to take the geese in and retire them on a pond on her property where they would be guaranteed safety.

I spent every evening after work for two weeks at my dad's pond. And every night I came home empty. I couldn't catch the birds by myself and my dad worked out of town. My husband worked until after dark. My boss who was on the board of our local SPCA put me in touch with Melissa, the animal control officer. Melissa met me at the pond one evening. The the two of us worked together to rescue Frick and Frack. When my husband came home that night we drove the geese to the wildlife rehabilitator's sanctuary. For a donation she took the birds and told me that she would call me after the female was examined

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