Entering the serene, skylighted oncology suite, I immediately see the goose standing on the tile floor: large, gray, and stately. His bill and legs are orange-hued with subtle gradations to rose, and the slate-colored plumage of his upper body gives way under his tail to bright white. He is elegant for such a full-bodied creature - built like a handsome frigate. Two-year-old Boswell (yes, after Samuel Johnson’s biographer) has finished his weekly radiation treatment for the bone cancer in his left leg, and, against the backdrop of computer screens, he is holding court with several lab-coated women. It is a little surreal.
Someone announces that Boswell’s “dad,” IBM scientist Mark Podlaseck, has arrived to pick him up. “Wait till you see this!” everyone says to me. I hear a voice announcing, “Your dad is here!” at which point the doors to the suite swing open, and the high-alert Boswell heads slowly up the hallway, webbed feet slapping like old-man slippers. He scans the human faces till he sees a brown-haired man in a dark checked shirt, then the goose starts wagging his tail feathers, honking, and running toward him. Podlaseck squats, his back pressed against the beige cinder-block wall, and strokes Boswell’s neck. Beak skyward, Boswell honks and honks with joy. His tail feathers shiver in excitement. Despite myself, I get tears in my eyes. “They tell you about the goose getting imprinted on you,” Podlaseck says, “but they don’t warn you that the reverse is true, too.”
The strength of the bond I am witnessing is unexpected, but with this goose, I am reminded of what is at the heart of my quest on this day. I’m here at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University in North Grafton trying to understand how we pet owners set about making decisions on how far to go in rescuing our beloved and sick or injured animals.
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