[04/09/02]Monday’s stormy weather sparked a wild goose chase for local sheriff’s deputies who met with success only after calling in a real wild goose chaser.

“I have never lost a Canada,” said Becky Bolm, wildlife rehabilitator, who said she will nurture the bird that became disoriented and was trapped in the sally port of the Warren County Jail.

Early Monday as members of the Warren County Sheriff’s Department started reporting for work, some of them saw the young goose wandering around near the department’s parking lot off Adams Street.

While the large birds are common in the area, they generally don’t walk around downtown Vicksburg.

“Chief of Detectives Jay McKenzie and Chief of Operations Otho Jones were the first to see it about 7:30,” said Sheriff Martin Pace.

McKenzie said Jones spotted the errant goose in the driveway, and it was not long before the confused goose found shelter near the jail’s covered south-side door. Pace parks his car in the bricked portico that has security gates which can be closed usually for security when moving an inmate from a vehicle to the jail’s interior.

But the goose, out of the high winds and heavy rains, apparently took a protective interest in the sheriff’s patrol car and hissed loudly whenever someone approached.

Pace called Bolm, who is licensed to shelter wild animals, and she arrived with a pet carrier, a pair of elbow-length gloves and a large towel.

As burly and heavily armed deputies looked on, the slight woman donned the gloves, spread the towel and quickly hemmed the goose up in a corner. She draped the towel over its head and in a matter of moments had popped the ailing animal into the carrier.

Bolm said the goose was healthy and would normally be kept for 24 hours before release.

“It doesn’t have a single broken bone on its body,” she said.

But the jail goose may be confined longer, she said, because it may have picked up some bad food.

“It’s got some head droop and that usually means it has enteritis,” she said, naming a bacterial infection.

If signs do indicate an infection, the goose will get a dose of antibiotics but she was confident the young bird will have a full life.

Normally, people think about a storm’s effects on humans. Wild animals seek shelter, too. “I always get one after a storm,” Bolm said as she was heading home with the bird. “They get blown around, and even though they are water repellent, they can get waterlogged and can’t fly.”

The jail goose was her fourth Canada, Bolm said. With storms like Monday’s common in April, weather will be a consideration before the jail goose gets its freedom again, she said. “I’m going to wait until a nice day.”

Most Canada geese are migratory, and spring is when they fly from wintering grounds north to spend the summer feeding and breeding. Some of the geese are resident flocks, however, and remain year-around.