A pet goose is being credited with helping save a Texas family’s animals after sounding a honking alarm as a fire tore through their barn.
The dramatic moment unfolded on the morning of 4 August in Fort Bend county, where four-month-old Goosey repeatedly squawked outside the burning barn, alerting his owners, the Gerber family, to the danger.
Home-security footage shared with Storyful by Chelsea Gerber captured flames burning inside the barn, which housed several of the family’s animals, including chickens and turkeys.
About 40 seconds into the video, Goosey emerges from the barn and begins squawking repeatedly. The goose can be seen pacing back and forth for several seconds while continuing to make the alarm-like sound.
Goosey’s efforts were successful, as the commotion woke Bert Gerber, who told local outlet KHOU that he had been asleep on the couch after staying up late watching television.
“I just casually came outside, and I saw a fire billowing out of there,” he told the outlet. “I grabbed a water hose and ran over there.”
Bert extinguished the blaze, and all the animals inside were accounted for and safe. He said the outcome could have been much different had Goosey not come to the rescue, adding that just a “couple more minutes” of sleep and the blaze would probably have been “out of control”.
“Our goose, Goosey, alerted us by honking, waking us up,” he said. “We were fortunate to get all the flames out, and everyone is safe.”
After reviewing the home-security footage and realizing what Goosey had done, Chelsea said the family was in “pure disbelief” and felt “extremely grateful” to their bird companion, who had joined their family only four months earlier.
Chelsea, Bert’s wife, told the outlet that the family adopted Goosey on Mother’s Day this year after their daughter “fell in love” with the animal at a poultry expo.
The adoption had been an unlikely one as Chelsea is “historically terrified of geese”, she told People. but she explained the event had had “a tent set up called ‘Hug a Goose’ and my kiddo could not resist”.
Chelsea reluctantly agreed to bring Goosey home. Not long after, she said, that decision proved consequential: “Four months later, he saved our homestead.”
