Just when we thought Red Goose Shoes went out of business decades ago, they go and make a comeback. Sender-inner Rebecca B. explains:
These nice folks were staying with us at the St. Francis Inn in St. Augustine, FL. They let me photograph their pet goose, who goes by the name of “Gator.”
While walking alongside his owners in urban or suburban areas, Gator often has to cross many blocks of asphalt and concrete. All that rough terrain takes a toll on his feet, so his people commissioned a special pair of Teva sandals for their bird.
They say it’s totally worth the expense, and Gator seems to like the shoes just fine …
… though sometimes it looks like he “marches” more than he walks. Very deliberate steps.
OMGWTFBBQ!!!
and toooo cute at the same time!
Oh lol this is hilarious! Before reading the text, just looking at the photos, I found myself torn between wanting to know why on earth a goose would be wearing shoes, and wanting there to be no other reason than “just because”.
My exact reaction! “Just because” rocks!
But this is darn good too.
hiLARious- i have officially seen it all.
Wow–what a completely crazy thing! I love love love it.
It must have been interesting trying to put those Tevas on for the very first time…
You have GOT to be kidding. Really?
Hilarious.
Oh my, now I want a pet goose just so that I can get him some goosey sandles! Found some more info about Gator here: http://coquinaonline.com/?p=2972. Looks like he likes to be held like a baby and have his tummy petted!
Oh. My. Gosh. The pictures of his person holding him upside down and rubbing his belleh with his little sandaled feets splayed in the air? TOO CUTE.
Hahaha I was struck by the same picture. And he looks so comfy too… he’s all “Yeah, that’s nice… why’s the lemonade taking so long?…”
OMG! I Squeed so loud I almost woke the kids. Seriously that is the most redonk and Adorable thing I have seen in a long long time. The feeties! The sandals. The tummy rub with the splayed feeties!
*dies now*
Red Goose Shoes? Wow. I wore Buster Browns, myself.
Did you ever have any Famolares? I deeeeed!
hah… so weird. A goose as a pet? who knew?!!
Walking a goose. Wearing sandals. On a leash.
oh yeah.
Stylin’!
oh my gosh!!!!!! too freakin’ cute……new pic for CO header!!!!
Oh…in response to the hovertext in last pic……is this what the animal world calls “goose” stepping??
Well, I don’t know what the animal world calls it, but yes, that is the term the human world uses for it!
I would love to see someone try to put a leash or shoes on the Canadian geese in my area. Wait, no. I wouldn’t. I hate the sight of blood.
More than that, I hate the sight of MY blood!
Yes, we’re laughing now but it’ll be a different matter when he invades Poland.
Now, now. I’m sure he’ll be appeased if we simply allow him to annex the Sudatenland.
We’ve finally found peace for our time, eh, Mr. Chamberlain?!
Don’t mention the war.
Yes you did, you invaded Poland!”
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1O41RIKKDo&w=480&h=390
Or let him star in a musical.
I was born in Dusseldorf,
And that is why they call me Rolf!
Don’t be stupid, be a smartie!
[NB: Have never seen the musical. I only have the film on DVD]
It’s springtime, for Gator, with sandals!
Silly goose!
Kicks are for skids!
Okay, we have now officially seen everything. They can shut the Internet down.
Someone turn the light off on your way out.
I thought that happened last week?
erm, v., if so, then, in what manner are these typed lines of text finding each other and how are our responses to them occurring????
– No, never mind, on second thought, I’d rather not know.
Signed,
SOMETIMES Ignorance is Bliss.
I saw a small dog wearing full-on sneakers on all four feet a few weeks ago. I assumed I was having some sort of college-era flashback or had gotten inadvertently drunk at the office. But now I’m thinking it really happened! New trend?
This seems to be more common in the world of service animals, where the animals are going to be required to go all sorts of places, even places not necessarily designed to be safe for animal feet. I seem to recall seeing a service pony with adorable sneakers, too.
Service ponies/horses have to wear lil shoes, cuz their hoofies are very slippery on tiled or wood floors like you find in stores & such. These are awesome animals!
I NEED to see a video of him walking (marching), please!
who has a video camera and lives near st. augustine? don’t worry about the cost, just put it on our bill!
Me, too! I’ve never seen goose stepping by an actual goose.
*raises hand halfway up*
I live in the vicinity of St. Aug. However *sigh of sadness*
1– No haz vehicle.
2– No haz camera.
And don’t even ask about cellphones with camera functions.
I’m one of the four people on the planet who DOES NOT PRESENTLY (and doesn’t wanna) get into the whole cellphone universe so no camera adaptation/cellphone bit either.
i think he’d prefer my favs- vibram fiv… um FOUR fingers
How about goosestep for the name of the walk? Would that work?
The goosestep is what you do if you happen to get stuck behind Gator on the sidewalk. Geese aren’t too selective when it comes to potty breaks.
How wonderful that Gator’s hoomans love him so much to go through the expense of designing and purchasing stylish sandals to protect his “feet” from asphalt and rough terrain…!
“This leash demeans us both.”
That’s the coolest thing I’ve ever seen, plain and simple.
Apparently, this isn’t the first time Teva has ventured into avian footwear. Check out the penguin with an orthopedic shoe!
That was so sweet I teared up. Either that, or my PMS is in high gear.
ha ha right there with ya sister
No PMS here but tearing up also. snf.
*brings a box of tissues and passes
them around to Michelle, Ash & Mary (the first)*
I am so happy for the penguin! Yea Teva for makin’ a boot that works for the little guy! Michelle, it made me tear up too. I think seeing him walk around with his abnormal foot was so sad. And then to see him whizzin’ around with the boot, well, that was just awesome!
ok, I am now totally going to go buy a pair of Tevas
KG, thanks a million for posting this. What a great story.
Yup, I teared up too. Those men are SO sweet. Amazing video, amazing people.
I have some Teva sandals. Occasionally, the weather is good enough over here to wear them. I will wear them even more proudly now.
Super you added the penguin story.
Stupid corporations! Stop making me cry!
How am I supposed to be cynical when corporations do something this sweet?
[Granted, they're doing it for cynical reasons, but I find myself unaffected by these distinctions.]
Give me a Kleenex,
And here I thought nothing could be cuter than the little piggie with red wellingtons…
I need to see video of this NOW please!!
Is it really cool though? I think animals find it annoying when we try to hoomanize them by putting them into frilly dresses and such. The goose feet aren’t injured, the ground doesn’t have broken glass. I think I’d be pretty annoyed if someone randomly put me in shoes less walkable than my regular footwear.
Did you read what it said? The caption states that walking on asphalt took a toll on his webbed feet.
So it’s not just random dressing up because someone thought it was funny. It’s to protect his feet from injury.
I don’t think it’s so much about humanizing him rather than protecting his feet. And yes, his feet aren’t injured, but that might be *because* of the sandals. Who are we to judge from just a few pictures?
His humans spent beaucoup bucks on a pair of custom-made goose tevas, I don’t think they would ever do anything to him that he might find annoying or stressful..IMHO
@ Simi & others:
….other related details re. this goose & his footgear.
St. Augustine is an area where the city values keeping its roads and its sidewalks to the older materials where it can do so. There are a lot of areas which are older BRICKED streets/ sidewalks, maybe even cobblestoned areas in places, rather than a standard city area where they would pull all that up and put down shiny new smooth asphalt. City zoning as a historic landmark has the weight in decisions about whether to resurface roadways or sidewalks.
Also — at certain weeks, there are throngs of happy but unfocussed pedestrians/ touristas crowding all over and certainly at night there are probably some members of the throngs who have *ahem* done some imbibing of alcoholic beverages ….So this goose most likely has more than the standard one or two neighbor mowing grass, with whom to navigate his steps around.
Signed,
Born & lived many many of my yrs in Jax & vicinities ….
Ooh. My bad, so that’s why there were so many good comments. Sorry for my lazy skimming!
It’s an occupational hazard of living at Cuteoverload. SO SO often, I’ve been entirely bowled over by a phenomenally cute thing here, that I couldn’t make myself slow down sufficiently and missed some crucial background fact in either the photo setup or one of the commenters.
Signed,
Been there; done that.
why don’t they just get him a bike?
Fashionable AND functional! The orange matches his beak too
Birkensquawks
BOOM!
What nobody commented about yet is the nice folks at the St. Francis Inn in St. Augustine, FL who let a couple WITH A PET GOOSE stay at their Inn.
Kudos St. Francis In, if I ever make it back to Florida (please Jesus) you have my business for sure !!!
I wonder if it’s called the St. Francis Inn because it’s animal-friendly. St. Francis of Assisi was the patron saint of animals.
I visited Assisi, and at the huge church they built in memory of St. Francis there was a statue of him outside with a basket in his hands. And wouldn’t you know, some pigeons had built a nest in the basket and were living there?
awesome!
I got hit by a car in Assisi… people there have their priorities, obviously, because they dodged a nun to hit me instead!
@ Gigi: si vous venez a St. Aug ou a Jacksonville, j’espere que vous obtenirez (?) mon “email” ou telephone …je voudrais faire votre acquaintance. Comme ca je peux parler un peu en francais. [Although] de temps en temps, j’oublie ou je le fait en mauvais/ incorrectly .
*blushing because I just got back/ hospital and my memory for my Fr. is not so good just at the moment*
L’hôpital? J’espère que ce n’était rien de sérieux et que vous vous portez mieux. Et votre français est très bon, c’est une lague tellement difficile.
merci re. l’hopital et aussi re. mon Franglais!!!!
– je me suis allee a l’hopital pour quelque chose associe avec “hysterectomy” depuis trois semaines. C’est quelque chose qui est difficile [to repair], mais ce n’est pas [an emergency]; merci.
Je vous souhaite un bon “weekend” !!!
Gigi, that’s what occurred to me first, too. That the goose’s people were fellow guests at the hotel! Crazy. [Commits hotel to memory, should I ever make it to St. Augustine.]
Maybe I’ve missed something but this looks like abuse or cruelty or whatever, to me
yes, you missed the part about the goose hurting its feet without the intervention of sandals.
Yes, you’ve missed something.
This is AWESOME! I love to see people who take extra special care of the furred or feathered friends. I took my pup for a walk once, not even thinking about how hot the pavement was till he leaned on me to get off his feet, then I felt HORRIBLE. I love these people.
The hovertext is especially hilarious.
Wait…what??? This is the most redonk picture ever!
*SQUEE-PLOSION* I definitely just barfed a rainbow.
Holy Mother of Goose!! Geeses wearing tevas.
Do the wonders of science never cease?
We will soon travel among the stars, light our streets at night
or, dare I say it, cut a loaf of bread into many individual servings?
I put in my order for my flying car years ago.
And the factory keeps saying “They’re coming soon!” [sigh] All I wanted was a speeder-bike! [pouts]
I have to say, there’s something decidedly Sesame Street/Muppet-y about the pictures. His legs and feet look like… I dunno, Grover, or something.
Groovy?
Shoes?! That guy has STYLE!!
Okay, sure, he’s wearing sandals and that is pretty unusual.
What I was shocked by…
They took their goose ON VACATION.
“Hey darling, should we take Gator to see the historic city of St. Augustine this summer? You know how much he loves Spanish Colonial architecture.”
True story: a friend of mine and his wife take their poodle – Winnie – on their many road-trip vacations. Recently someone asked them if they had been to a certain popular location. His wife said, “Hey, Winnie hasn’t been to that state yet. We should go!”
This friend is an engineer. So of course he keeps a chart of the states they’ve seen, how much time they spent there, and if they took their dog or (now grown) daughters. He tells me that Winnie has seen more of the US and Canada than their three daughters – now, THAT’S a little scary!
All he needs are some cargo shorts and sunglasses and he’ll be totally hipster.
Cargo shorts on a hipster? really?
Just thinking, does Gator really have to accompany them on every journey? I mean I have a leettle kitteh who I love to pieces but I don’t make her come with me when i leave the house, if I did she’d probably need a little pair of shoes as well (although NEVER tevas).
Erm…I actually HAVE these Tevas, though not goose-sized…same color scheme and everything.
and, of course the sandals are orange. OF COURSE. what other color would they be? :p
I love people who aren’t afraid of looking stupid in order to benefit their pets. Kudos to those peeps for putting Gator’s comfort ahead of their dignity.
OMG, this made my day, my month, my effing year!!!! He’s adorable and what great guardians!
Those shoes! Very chick
facepalm
Seriously, what’s with all the Hitler jokes lately, cuteoverload? I feel like that’s going against your brand. And it’s lame.
That’s no way for a goose to live. Leashed and shoed. Sounds like a ‘great’ life. He probably marches by a pond in his special Tevas and gets the goose sads.
wow.
So you probably missed the whole, ‘saved by people from a freaking gator’ part of the story didn’t you?
They probably kept the goose as a pet ’cause they were afraid if they gave it to the animal control people someone would turn it into goose a l’orange.
…
This is why there aren’t a lot of good Samaritans anymore, they’re all terrified if they do a good thing they’ll be spat upon by people who will tell them it’s not good enough, or that they’re ‘doing it wrong’.