As if a Canada goose named Arnold isn't endearing enough, his partner came looking for him when he was injured.
Cape Wildlife Center in Barnstable, Massachusetts shared the heartwarming story on its Facebook page, in what they described as "a first" for their animal hospital. "We often have people ask if they can visit the patients they dropped off, but today we had our first animal visitor!" they posted. "For the safety of our patients we do not accommodate visitation requests, but in this case we had to make an exception!"
Arnold is a Canada goose that lives on a pond near the facility and is part of a mated pair of wild geese that have been together for several years. The center said the geese usually keep to themselves, but one of their staff noticed that Arnold was walking with a "significant limp" and kept falling over. They were able to capture him and bring him into the hospital for examination.
"Upon exam our veterinary team found that he had two open-fractures on his foot," they wrote. To save his foot and help him survive, the staff knew they had to amputate one of the digits and suture the other wound closed. They gave him antibiotics and pain meds and prepped him for surgery the following morning.
Then his mate came knocking.
"Today, as we prepared to sedate Arnold and get him ready for surgery, we heard a faint tapping at the clinic door," the center wrote. "We turned to see that his mate had waddled up onto the porch and was attempting to break into our clinic! She had somehow located him and was agitated that she could not get inside. She remained there throughout the entire procedure, watching us work, never moving from the doorway."
Aww.
Surgery went well, and once Arnold woke up the staff decided to let him recover by the doorway so he and his mate could see each other.
"We opened the door and gave Arnold his flow-by oxygen in the doorway. His mate immediately calmed down. They both seemed much more at ease in each other's presence."
Double aww!