Cleopatra, the Egyptian Goose

Every farm animal has it's own personality, and some are more pleasant than others.  Take Cleopatra, our Egyptian goose, for example.  She was a gift given to me by a dear friend earlier in the year, and I was intrigued by her from the beginning. I immediately named her after the famous Egyptian ruler, and soon found out how fitting the name is.  Not only is she strikingly beautiful, but she's very much a tyrant. 

Egyptian geese typically rule their territory with an iron fist (or wing) and will often run off any other waterfowl that's not their own kind.  Cleo succeeded in running Jackie Chan, our Chinese Gander, off her pond the very day we brought him home.  My husband had to pick him up at the neighbor's house the next day.  We had to pen him up in the backyard with the Cayuga ducks for a while until we could convince him to stick around.

Jackie Chan and the Cayugas became fast friends, and I think it made Cleopatra a little jealous.  When I decided it was time to turn JC & the ducks loose from the pen, they would waddle happily around, with Her Majesty silently watching them from a distance.  Each day I noticed her creeping closer, her eyes never wavering from the trio.  Occasionally she'd flap her wings
and hiss. 

I think she was trying to get noticed.  We've all been there. 

But Jackie Chan and the Cayugas simply ignored her, and eventually she gave up the dramatics and began to graze along with them--can't beat 'em, join 'em.  Now I find them all waddling along together, nibbling the seedheads off my too-tall grass and gobbling up any rotten pears and tomatoes they can find. 

Don't get me wrong, Cleo's still Empress of Waterfowl (at least she thinks she is).  She's clearly the one ordering her loyal (but ambivalent) subjects around the barnyard, but I think she's realized how nice it is to have some company while she's at it. 

Just not at her pond...she still won't allow them to get close to it!  Like a true queen, she only swims alone.