How quickly they grow

The gosling I've been watching is very nearly a goose. It's almost reached the end of that awkward transitional phase where it hasn't quite lost all the fluffy feathers of it's youth (puppy feathers?), but is mostly goose coloured and shaped now. Hmm, I can't keep calling it an "it" - seems to distant somehow, especially for the purposed of story telling. We need a name for the not-so-little gosling, and since I doubt anyone else has made the effort I may as well christen it. I suppose the first thing I need to do is determine it's gender. I've no idea what how you go about telling goose genders (both it's parents look worryingly identical to my untrained eyes) so I hope geese everywhere will forgive me if I flip a coin to randomly choose a sex. Heads for a girl, tails for a boy. Here goes... and tails. A boy it is. Now as for a name... hmm, he rather looks like a Cedric I think. Cedric the goose. Yup sounds about right to me.

A woman was sitting on a bench trying to capture Cedric's attention earlier. He's still a suspicious little creature, wary of humans (and rightly so, given what we're capable of) and he circled around the woman refusing to get too close to her. The woman, anticipating Cedrics reluctance, had come prepared with bread, and she cunningly placed small chunks of this treat next to herself on the bench in order to lure Cedric closer. Cedric appeared conflicted. No doubt his parents, like so many of our own, had gone to great lengths to instill in the young bird the dangers of strangers and their treats, but on the other hand, there was food to be had and his beadly coal black eyes were fixed determinedly on the bread. Whilst still attempting to keep his distance, he tried to crane his neck towards the bread, but it remained elusively out of reach. I watched this peculiar vignette play out for a few minutes, as Cedric tried to find new ways to snatch a few breadcrumbs whilst maintaining his distance, until finally he realised that the only way to get the bread was to approach the woman (aren't we humans sneaky?).

I left the goose feeding contentedly from the womans hand and wandered away to ponder my own business...