Honk the Goose gets a new home at bird sanctuary

DALLAS - Everyone’s favorite goose has a new home.

Honk the Goose befriended a Dallas filmmaker Cheryl Allison at a local park while she was trying to stay socially distanced from friends.

The two would meet up at the park several times per week and developed a close relationship. From there, Honk gained popularity on social media and started advocating against animal dumping.

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Honk is now living at the Rogers Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, a bird sanctuary with 15 other geese and many more ducks.

“They provide much-needed resources for wild birds that are injured. They rehabilitate them and release them back into the wild. But they also are a permanent home for birds that cannot be released and numerous domestic geese and ducks,” Allison said.

She felt it wasn’t safe for him to continue living near a creek in the park. She also worried about him being lonely.

“I’ve been with him now every single literally spending hours and hours with him. And I found out a lot by talking to several of the neighbors in the area,” she said.

Neighbors said Honk had been there at least four years but he had been there with a mate. They were both believe to have been dumped there.

“They were companions and they survived there together even though there were a lot of negative elements. But I discovered just two weeks ago... I found her remains on a nest up the creek. She had died and when I got closer I did some investigation. She had a huge lump on the side of her neck and I could tell that she had swallowed a foreign object,” she said.

Allison believes the reason Honk attached himself to her was that he was mourning.

“I could tell. His behavior became erratic. He was going into the street a lot. He would follow people and it really concerned me. As much as we all love him and I know we will miss him at that pond, I have to tell you I have found hooks wrapped around his leg. I found a fishing hook embedded underneath his wing feather. So he had an open wound that was getting infected,” she said.

Honk now has a new family at the sanctuary. Allison said he has already started walking around with another goose.

“He was completely alone and geese they’re flock animals so they need to be with other geese,” she said. “It was bittersweet for me because I’m going to miss some of the intimacy that I got to share with him at the park. But anyone who loves him knows that was the most selfless thing any of us could do because he was alone.”

Allison plans to volunteer at the sanctuary and will visit Honk often.

LINK: www.instagram.com/honk_thegoose/