What a nice story, Husky. I'm glad the town will let them stay together--sounds like those two have it worked out and those babies will have a guardian watching over them. How interesting! I came to the conclusion that animals know a lot more than we give them credit for quite a few years back. I'll talk to Roxie the Rottweiler and love her all over. She's gotten used to my hands and no longer jerks her shoulders which were kicked and beaten when she was a pup. She lets me very softly stroke her poor, hurting hips, marked by beatings and dysplasia. (She's on a daily pain-killer) I cup her face in my hands and tell her how special she is and how much I love her. I look into her beautiful eyes and see love that makes my heart feel so full and joyful. I'm sure we wound up together for a very special journey. ---oh, I forgot to mention, the cats steal her bed, drink from her water dish, and Be-Be Kitty asks for some of Roxie's dry food for a snack.

Spoons... ah, technically I'd categorize it as a typical college "drinking" game. Similar to musical chairs, in a way. Say you have 6 players (the more the merrier) around the table... you have FIVE spoons. You deal out deck of cards till they're gone... doesn't have to come out even, but you need more than say 5-6 cards total. Dealer determines direction to pass and on his signal, you pass one card at a time, picking up whatever got passed to you. Object is to get 4 of a kind. Once you get 4 of a kind, you take a spoon and then everybody else grabs for one... spoon-less person is out... or ya drink?!? Seem to recall broken furniture, over-turned chairs, bruises, even blood at times?? Have noticed that if n activity/video/whatever isn't something kids already know by heart, have seen a zillion times, or had tons of special effects... not a lot of interest... unless sorta "forced" to watch. That and hardly ever watching an entire movie? DQM (don't quote me... my replacement for imo) buy if you can't tell me what happens to Carlo at the end of The Godfather, you haven't watched it.

Killing squirrels is humane????? Realy. And then you live with that guilty nightmare for the rest of your life. And how many other beautiful creatures will get accidentally killed in the process? Put up some owl houses and pray to God for wisdom. It seems to be lacking around here. A lot of bird food mixes include whole peanuts, so your neighbors intentions might be to feed the birds and not the squirrels. I was trying to kill voles once with peanut butter and mousetraps and accidentally killed a beautiful White Crowned Sparrow. On another occasion I put sticky paper under an upside down broken pot to kill ants, and a beautiful wren crawled under it, got stuck, and suffered a slow, horrible death because of ME. So I have to live with this the rest of my life. I'm done with killing. I didn't give them life, and it's not my right to take it away.

A couple folks around here use huge inflatable swans in their ponds. They look like pool floats meant for a kid or maybe small adult? Put it on an anchor so it floats around "On patrol", but does not float away. They are fun :) And seem to work. We have live swans on our biggest pond, they for sure work. Once it gets up to small lake size, if the habitat can support both birds your mileage on a fake swan can go down if there are already live ones on the lake. I've heard of dead goose or gator decoys being used, but haven't seen them in action. How are you utilizing the edge of the pond? Geese prefer a gentle and open edge to a pond. Easy to walk on, see predators coming, and easy take-off space if needed. Messing with that can be a great way to keep them from wanting to stick around. Doing a bit of habitat modification can often do the trick. If you run a wire about 8 inches off the ground close to the waters edge that will stop them. It's their fence height, they are unlikely to duck under or hop over it. If you use flash tape on it, all the better. 12-18+ inches of fence, stacked rocks or wood, various planting and growths, and the like can block them. A solid line or fence is best, though you can break it up a bit into layering your stuff and creating switchback spots to walk through. Humans and dogs are fine with walking through switchbacks. Wild geese are not so fond of walking through what they can't see over- particularly if there are several geese together. They will do it, they just aren't fond of it and if there is easier beach access elsewhere on the lake, they will choose it first. If you can put a stringer across the water a foot or so off from shore, they won't swim over it to walk up onto the shore. Stepping or walling your shore can be possible in some situations. It makes the waters edge not swim to walk accessable for birds. One of my smaller ponds is very deep with a natural step edge dropping in, it's surrounded by tall grasses. I've seen many places have retaining walls that come straight up out of the water- it's often for shoring or retaining, but also is very good at creating the step that geese don't want to use. If your geese are ealier spring stopovers. Letting your lawn get a bit shaggier in the fall and holding off a bit in the spring can make your lawn seem not so tasty or hospitable by comparison to neighbors lawns that get their last cuts later or start earlier. Spring geese love a fresh and verdant spring lawn. If your lawn is made up of sweeter or more tender grasses, growing more bitter and tougher grasses can help a bit. Especially if other lawns have tasty grass growing in them. If you are spring seeding your lawn, geese go after that too.