LAYTON, Utah – Many people have unusual pets, but not very many families have a pet goose, which is why a Layton family is getting a lot of attention for their family pet.
Kevin and Diane Westcott said geese make great pets.
"We started keeping geese back in 2003, and with our first set of geese that we got, one of the goslings started to go lame on us, and we had never kept geese before, so we started doing some research and we found this website for the Goose Mother,” Diane Westcott said. “And on there she said that geese made great pets and how she had developed a diaper harness for them and everything else, and I thought, 'wow that would be so much fun to have a house goose.'”
“And I said, ‘No,’” Kevin Westcott said.
But four years later, the family had a house goose.
"I went outside, I picked up the cutest little gosling that I could find running next to my feet and brought her in the house and said, ‘I hope you're a girl’ and Gladys became part of the family,” Diane Westcott said.
The family had four cats and a large dog in the house, but Diane Westcott said the goose got along with the dog very well.
“They were inseparable,” she said. “They used to sleep together. They would argue like brother and sister. If she was chewing on something, she would bark to get our attention and we'd have to come in."
Diane Westcott said they’ve grown close to Gladys.
"She sleeps on the bed with us at night,” she said. “She has complete conversations with Kevin. He's the only one that can really get her to start jabbering away."
The couple said Gladys makes herself at home.
"She just kind of wanders around the house and plops down where she wants,” Diane Westcott said. “It's more the attitude of a cat where it's on their terms."
The couple said Gladys wears a diaper, as it’s not possible to potty train a goose. They said they take the goose with them to places, even shopping and camping.
"She's got her own little special basket that she sits in,” Diane Westcott said. “You cannot put her in the backseat. She will do everything possible to get up into the front seat to sit with us."
The family said sometimes others are surprised to see the goose with them.
"All of the sudden she'll honk and people will jump because they thought she was a ceramic goose from the garden area, and then all of the sudden they're curious about what's going on," Kevin Westcott said.
Diane has written a book called “The Adventures of Gladys the Goose” and they are currently seeking a publisher. The couple said they highly recommend people get geese as pets, so long as they do their research first.
