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slowly Adam changed from a farm animal to a pet. We began to understand his various calls, and he began to understand our English. I won’t mention those impolite four-letter words that spontaneously arise from my British background, but he understood Julia’s clear instructions like “Come on!,” and “Let’s go!.”
If I was digging in the garden and I turned up a worm, I shouted “Adam, worm!,” and each time he would come running, neck down, ready for the feed. He took those worms straight off the shovel. I suppose one could say he was “shovelfed.”
As time went by he became even more of a pet, and more petted. He took to Julia, and she stroked his feathers. With his clumsy webbed feet he liked to stand on her lap, and he refused to go to the stream for a swim unless Julia led the way. She took over the chores of the watering, the com supply, and the greens.
He even followed her into the house one day, walking right through the hallway out onto the verandah.
Because of frosts we had to place his water supply on a heated plate in the winter months. This was electrically heated, and to monitor the operation, we put a 7-watt bulb in the circuit. Adam appreciated the light more than the heated water, and he roosted by it in the long dark nights. Julia remarked that he must be the only goose in Rappahannock County with a personal night light.
As Julia became his friend, I became his enemy - or more correctly, competitor. Adam took to showing how fierce and protective he was by rushing at me in a mock attack, and then pad, pad, padding back to Julia, head-high, and noisy.
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