Arnold Animal Control officer Garry Pickrell went on a wild goose chase this morning (May 14), literally.
Pickrell had to help capture a goose and her three goslings who found themselves in a precarious situation along I-55 just south of Richardson Road.
He said he got a call around 9:30 a.m. about the geese on the interstate, and when he arrived, the goose and goslings were on the shoulder of the southbound lanes. The goose had tried to cross the interstate with her goslings following her, but a car clipped the mother, sending the geese back to the shoulder.
Pickrell said he first went after the goose, who avoided his first attempt to trap her in a net. On his second try, he was able get the net over the goose, but she was trapped in a puddle. So, when Pickrell tried to get the goose off the ground, he slipped on the wet surface and the bird got away.
After his second failed attempt to get the goose, Pickrell said he turned his attention to corralling the goslings, who were heading into tall grass, and he quickly captured them. However, while his attention was on the goslings, the goose attempted to cross the interstate again, and she was clipped by another car and ended up in the median, Pickrell said.
Arnold Police shut down the interstate’s southbound lanes to allow Pickrell to get to the goose in the median. He said the interstate only was closed for about five minutes.
“She was laying down, and I thought she was injured,” Pickrell said. “But when I went to catch her, she tried to fly again. I got the net over the top of her, held her down, got her in the truck and got off the highway.
“There was quite a bit of traffic. We had to wait for sections to close to get over.”
He said the goose and the goslings were taken to Arnold City Park and released near the lake there.
“They started swimming around like nothing happened,” Pickrell said. “They should be fine.”
On its Facebook page, the Arnold Police Department thanked the Missouri Department of Transportation and the Missouri State Highway Patrol for “helping us get the family out of a potentially dangerous predicament.”