For the last six years, a goose couple named Karen and Richard have made a Kohl’s parking lot in Western Missouri their home each spring. After building their nest, the happy couple typically welcomes a new clutch of goslings. So when they showed up again this year, onlookers were hopeful to see some adorable babies soon.
But after Karen laid her eggs this year, months passed without any movement from the babies, and some of the geese’s admirers grew concerned.
“Karen has been sitting on her eggs for almost 60 days,” Babe's Ducks Waterfowl Rescue (BDWR) wrote on Facebook. “They should have hatched long ago.”
One Good Samaritan, Kristen Evans, kept a close eye on the geese. She watched as Karen sat dutifully on her eggs day after day, and even observed
the goose roll her eggs around, checking for signs of life.
But as time passed with no hatchlings, Evans decided to call BDWR for support. That’s when BDWR’s rescuers confirmed her worst fears.
“Typical incubation time is 28 days. Maybe 35, depending on when the last egg was laid at the clutch,” BDWR wrote in a Facebook comment. “[After] 55 days … the eggs are absolutely not hatching.”
Evans was heartbroken for the goose couple, who seemed to understand that something wasn’t right with their babies.
“This week, we noticed [Karen] was doing less sitting and more standing, starting to realize they are not going to hatch,” BDWR wrote.
But Karen refused to give up. She continued incubating her eggs for a few more days while BDWR’s rescuers mulled over how to help the couple. Then, a sad but hopeful call came in that changed everything.
“On Saturday, we got a call about [two] orphaned goslings whose parents had been hit by a car,” BDWR wrote. “We picked them up from our friends at Lakeside and got to thinking … what if Richard and Karen accept these babies?”
Without skipping a beat, the BDWR rescuers picked up the orphaned goslings and drove them to Kohl’s to meet Karen and Richard. And the couple’s reaction was everything BDWR hoped for.
“We introduced the babies, and Karen and Richard immediately took them as their own,” BDWR wrote.
Karen and Richard accepted the orphaned goslings right away, but they weren’t quite ready to give up on the eggs in their nest just yet. So, Karen sat on her eggs for the rest of the evening while Richard waddled around with their new babies.
Then, the following afternoon, Karen suddenly had a change of heart.
“Around 1 pm today, after watching Richard and the babies running around on the ground waiting for her for several hours, Karen finally realized her new babies needed her, and her eggs are not viable,” BDWR wrote.
Finally, Karen left her nest one last time and joined her new little family for a trek across the parking lot, back to their natural habitat.
You can watch that moment here:
The geese’s admirers and rescuers were overjoyed for them. While everyone wishes Karen and Richard’s clutch of eggs had hatched successfully, they’re thrilled to know that the couple didn’t return home empty-handed.
At the end of the day, Karen and Richard got the babies they’d been waiting for. And now they’re enjoying their lives as parents again, preparing their adopted goslings for an amazing life ahead.
“The happy family waddled off together to their next chapter,” BDWR wrote. “[It’s a] Disney ending.”
