Wally and Wile E.

It was a joke. Honest. But the St. Bernard took it seriously.

A couple of Canada geese have been hanging around our retention pond and our lake this spring, trying to nest. On this campus, as in many other places, they are considered pests. However, we can not harm them because, as a migratory species, they are protected by law. On the other hand, we can irritate the heck out of them without repercussion, so...

I saw this item in a catalog and passed it on to Skippy, figuring he'd get a laugh out of it. Not only did he think I was serious and pass it on to St. Bernard, and not only did St. Bernard order one to put in the retention pond, he also ordered this.

They arrived the other day. I've nicknamed them Wally and Wile E. I put Wile E. out for the first time this morning. (Let's see how long it takes before the first concerned phone call is made.) I figure I have to move him each day, so the geese don't get smart and realize he's fake. (Coming in on the weekends to move a fake coyote. Yay.) I'm still pondering how to keep Wally from washing to the shoreline because of the pond's aerator, but I'm leaning toward tethering him somehow to a plastic, 5-gallon bucket filled with rocks.