She continued to tap on his window before leading the way to the stream.
Despite having worked for the Cincinnati Police Department for over 26 years, police sergeant James Givens has never encountered a distress call quite like this one.
Givens was just idling in his police car in a neighbourhood parking space when an animal started tapping on the window and got his attention.
The moment he realized it was a goose, he did a double-take.
The goose gave Givens a stern look and her eyes had a look of urgency. It appeared to be trying to catch the officer’s eye.
Givens told WKRC, “It kept pecking and pecking and normally they don’t come near us.”
Givens could tell this was a unique circumstance, and since he wasn’t on call, he didn’t hesitate when the irate goose walked away and then stopped to look back at him as if urging him to follow. He jumped out of his cruiser right away and began to follow the goose toward the water’s edge.
He recalled the event and said:
“It walked away and then it stopped and looked back, so I followed it.”
Givens followed the goose and found something that explained their earlier exchange.
“It led me right over to [a gosling] that was tangled up in all that string.”
She was actually pleading with Given to follow her when she turned to face him. Not everything was in his head.
The young gosling was caught in a piece of string that was fastened to a deflated balloon.
The gosling could flap his tiny wings and feet, but not enough to free himself.
Givens was anxious that the goose might attack him if he approached too closely while still wanting to help the gosling. After all, they are renowned for being possessive and territorial. He made the decision to make a rescue call to the SPCA.
Unfortunately, because of their heavy workload, ASPCA employees were unable to travel to the scene and help with the rescue.
Givens made the decision to contact Cecilia Charon, a coworker, who agreed to help in the gosling’s rescue.
She usually doesn’t help with rescues like this, but since the SPCA had already stated that they were busy, she made the decision to contribute her expertise.
Sergeant Givens grabbed his camera as soon as Cecilia arrived and started filming the rescue.
Following that, Givens posted the footage of the gosling being set free online, where it (along with his account of the mother goose) quickly gained popularity.
The video has received over 7 million views so far.
The way Givens took time out of his day to help a mother goose who obviously needed it is well-liked by viewers.
“Very proud of this officer. To protect and serve… not just people.”
“That’s a good mama bird. And that’s a good cop.”
“Officers… Thank you so very much! You potentially saved the life of that gosling, helped a mother that came to you, and you made our day a little brighter as well. Job well done!”