FAIRHOPE – After a month of searching, hoping and waiting, long-time Fairhope Pier visitors have just about accepted that Garfield the goose won’t be coming home.
It’s hard to accept that the goose known to residents for more than a decade is gone. What’s harder is that the only one who can’t accept that he isn’t coming back is his mate, Gigi, Bobbi York, a frequent park visitor, said.
“She keeps looking for him,” she said. “It’s like she’s just trying to get used to being by herself.”
York, who lives in Loxley and works in Fairhope, comes to the city’s waterfront park almost every weekday morning. Garfield, a white Chinese goose, was a park icon who would often walk up to people he knew looking for handouts.
“He had piercing blue eyes and he would make eye contact with me and he’d sit in my lap if I let him,” York said.
She last saw Garfield on May 6. As usual, he and Gigi were together. Garfield would approach visitors, while Gigi stayed back. Garfield would get protective of her if anyone tried to approach the shy gray female.
The next day, Gigi was by herself. Since then, York and others have looked and waited, communicating through a Facebook page that she maintains dedicated to Garfield and Gigi. “People started messaging me from all over asking about him,” she said.
No one could find any sign that an animal, such as a fox or coyote had attacked Garfield. No feathers or other indications could be seen. “He wouldn’t have let anyone pick him up and take him,” York said. “He wouldn’t leave Gigi.”
A fox did attack Gigi about a year ago. York came to the park in March 2018 to find Garfield guarding an injured Gigi. York called Fairhope animal control, who took the goose to Dr. David Dykes’ clinic in Foley. From there she went to an animal rehabilitation center in Orange Beach.
Gigi recovered, but lost the use of her left leg. Garfield waited and was there to greet her when she was brought back to Fairhope.
Since then, he had been even more protective of Gigi, sheltering her from the Canada geese that also inhabit the park.
Since Garfield’s disappearance, Gigi has become a little less shy around some people and appears to be trying to cope, York said. “I’d like to think she knows who I am, that I’m the one who rescued her after the fox,” she said.
York thinks the most likely explanation for Garfield’s disappearance is an alligator. Alligators are sometimes seen in the area of the park and an attack while Garfield was swimming in Mobile Bay would not leave any sign. “I just think a gator got him,” she said.
As with other fans of the two geese, however, York keeps waiting and watching.
“Each week that goes by, we accept a little more that he’s not coming back,” she said. “My heart is telling me that he’s just gone.”
