A rambunctious white goose who became a Nocatee neighborhood mascot was shot and killed last week, angering those who adored the polarizing bird and inducing shrugs in others.
“I don’t understand why someone would do this,” his informal caretaker told The Citizen. “Rocky was really beautiful and everyone around here knew him. Kids, adults, everyone. It’s just senseless and cruel.”
Roughly a year ago, the caretaker’s son found the goose limping near a drainage ditch it had been trapped in. The boy brought the creature home and slowly nursed it back to health in the family’s garage.
After recuperating, Rocky would often visit the boy’s family and their surrounding streets.
The bird soon formed a clique with two snow-white ducks, and the tightly-knit trio frequently strolled the local streets together.
He soon became a fixture in the neighborhood, earning several nicknames from his admirers — including Rocky, Duck and Honk.
But not everyone was enamored by the bird’s presence. During mating season, the goose became “excitable,” and would vigorously break up attempts at amorousness by local ducks.
These intrusions would sometimes cause a racket at a large pond in the area, drawing annoyed online critiques from residents.
Others asserted that he was routinely “aggressive” with “everyone and everything.” Rocky, they argued, was more nuisance than neighborly.
Experts say male geese can become highly territorial during breeding season.
Rocky’s owners asserted that he had more advocates than enemies, and remained a generally welcome presence in the community’s manicured streets.
Still, the goose’s backers felt that he would perhaps be happier in a more rustic setting, and arranged to relocate him to a nearby farm with the potential for a wider circle of like-minded geese.
But that migration would never come. This past Monday, someone spotted Rocky bleeding profusely and staggering down the street.
“He was just covered,” his caretaker said. “We couldn’t believe it. You could see that he had been shot. Shot by a BB gun or something. There was a hole, you could see it clearly.”
Despite his injuries, Rocky’s protectors were cautiously optimistic that he would recover. But two days later, he was found floating dead in a pond.
“I pulled him out,” the caretaker said. “It was really heartbreaking, really sad. He was just a few days from going to a new home, and he wasn’t able to make it.”
A group of Rocky’s mourners quickly called for the shooter to be identified.
“I forgive this person,” Rocky’s caretaker said. “But I want some accountability. We don’t have to be best friends, we don’t have to share the same interests, but maybe we can be respectful towards each other.”
Others appeared unbothered by the goose’s demise on Facebook and cast the outpouring of grief as melodramatic.
A memorial golf cart parade in Rocky’s memory has been planned for this weekend.
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