Peep looked at the spokesgoose and said, "Would you like me to help you find your way home?"
The four geese looked at each other uncertainly. The spokesgoose said, "If you come outside, you'll probably eat us. Maybe we should just stay here. Would the people who live here feed us?"
"NO! You can't live here." Peep said this a little more forcefully than she'd intended and the geese scattered.
"What will we do?"
"Oh, I'm afraid of that cat."
"What if there are more cats?"
"I wish we were home."
To shut them up, Peep called to them, "I promise I won't eat you. I pledge it by the Higher Cat."
"The Higher Cat would probably like you to eat us. Pledge by the Great Grey Goose!"
"Okay, by the Great Grey Goose, I pledge that I won't eat you, or even try to eat you. Now, can I come out?" Peep was sorely frustrated, and was tempted to just chase them away. She did feel sorry for them, though, and that won over her frustration.
"Fine. As long as you remember that pledge." The geese watched her as she jumped down. They looked around in confusion until she appeared around the side of the house.
"Why don't you just sit here for a while and I'll try to find out if anyone is missing any geese." Peep had an idea, that the geese were as silly as the new cats' owners seemed, and maybe they were her geese.
"That's good. Can we eat the lilies in the pond? They look delicious." All four geese were eying the lilies.
"Please don't do that. My Daddy went to a lot of trouble to plant those lilies. I'll be back as soon as I can." Peep ran off towards her new friends house.
She'd never been there before, but Mr. Snuggles had described how he got to their yard, so she just had to reverse it. Luckily she didn't meet any other animals along the way, because she really wasn't a brave little cat. She found Ladybug lounging on the lawn. "Ladybug, are you missing any geese?"
"Geese? Why would I be missing geese. They're horrible nasty things that peck at cats." Ladybug shuddered. She'd had a bad encounter with some geese as a kitten and had barely escaped with her life.
"Rats. These four geese are in my yard, and they say they live nearby. They're driving me nuts, and I want to find where they live and take them home, because they don't seem to be able to figure it out on their own." Peep looked up at the sky, hoping for inspiration.
Mr. Snuggles walked over and nuzzled Peep. "Did I hear you mention geese? The people two houses past us have four ugly white geese. I can usually hear them honking all day, but come to think of it, it's been quiet. Do you want me to take you there?"
Peep, Mr. Snuggles and Ladybug set out for the house that usually had geese. They found a yard with a goose house, goose feed, a water butt and trampled grass, but no geese. Peep looked around carefully, memorizing the yard, so that she could describe it to the geese. "This is probably it. A place for geese, but no geese, and I have geese without a place. Occam's Razor would lead me to conclude that the geese belong here. Thanks for the help."
Arriving back in her yard, Peep found that the geese had eaten most of the lilies out of the pond. They looked at her sheepishly. "You were gone so long we thought we'd starve. We had to eat something!"
"Grass? Don't you eat grass?" Peep was really losing patience now. She'd gone to the trouble of finding the geese's home, and they'd eaten the lilies. She'd been gone no more than fifteen minutes, for cat's sake.
"Oh, we do eat grass! Okay fellas, let's eat some grass!" The geese proceeded to start on the lawn.
"Never mind. I think I've found your home." Peep described the goose house, the water butt, the yard and the house that the people lived in and waited for an answer.
"Well, it could be our home. We've been away so long, I'm really not sure. What do you think?" said one of the geese to the rest.
"Could be..."
"Did we have a house?"
"I'm not sure...."
Peep decided that it didn't matter if it was the right house or not, those geese were going there and she was taking them.
"I'm sure it's your house. Now, if you'll just follow me, I'll take you there." She set off and turned as she got to the edge of the yard. The geese had resumed eating the lawn.
"Let's go!"
The geese just looked up and said, "But we're still hungry."
Peep had a brilliant thought. "Speaking of hungry, the other two cats who live here should be home soon. They didn't say they wouldn't eat you, you know. They love to catch birds and eat them. If I were you, I think I'd want to leave now."
Squawking, the four geese ran towards her, and then past her into the trees. "Hey, wait! You don't know where you're going. Stay with me, because we might run into those cats, and if you're with me I can tell them to leave you alone." Peep ran to catch up with them.
Although it had taken only five minutes to get home from the geese's house, it took nearly half an hour to lead the geese home. They kept wandering off or stopping to eat. As they passed the house where the four cat friends lived, they spotted one, and all immediately began yelling, "Cat, cat, cat! Watch out for your lives!"Peep calmed them down, saying, "They know I'm bringing you home. They helped me find your house, for cat's sake. Just follow me, please."
They finally arrived in the right yard, the little black cat leading the four geese. There was a woman standing in the yard, who clapped her hands together and called, "Oh, you came home! I'm so glad I didn't have to go find you again."
The woman bent down and scratched Peep's head. "Thank you for bringing them home. They're not very bright, and tend to get lost easily. I hope they didn't bother you too much."
The geese meanwhile, had run to their food and water, and completely ignored both Peep and their owner.
"Well, bye, I guess. I'm glad you got home." Peep said to the geese.
One goose looked up and squawked, "Cat, cat, cat!" and ran away.
Peep shook her head and headed for home. She was very glad that she was not a goose.
Photo courtesy of Zenera - http://www.flickr.com/photos/zenera/37575560/
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