Woman helps goose in need near Rio Grande in Albuquerque

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — How far would you go to save an animal in need, let alone a wild animal? An Albuquerque woman answered a simple “Yes” to that question when she helped a goose near the Rio Grande.

“I was walking with my dog and we usually stop at a few of the beaches to just let her get some water and kind of run along them,” Jena Grissom said.

Jena’s usual walk turned unusual when she saw a Canada goose in the water. The goose was in the water but was doing something that seemed odd.

“Its head was bobbing in and out of the water. It looked pretty distressed. Whenever I walked up to it, like ten feet away, it didn’t even try to fly away from me and my dog,” Jena described.

That’s when Jena’s walk turned into a rescue mission. She started making calls to the animal shelter and sheriff’s department. When no one was able to take in the ailing goose, she turned to social media for help.

“I just didn’t think that that was a way for an animal to die. I’m an animal lover and I just had a lot of empathy for him,” she emphasized.

Jena then called Sparrow Rescue, a nonprofit wild bird rescue in Albuquerque. On the other end of the call was rescue director Savannah Jhee.

“I had a feeling that it might have been avian influenza [bird flu] when I got that call. I asked her if its head was shaking and she said, ‘Yea, the head is shaking,’ and she said one eye was cloudy. The fact that it was too weak to move, those were all very very strong indications of it being avian influenza,” Savannah stated.

Savannah was there in about five minutes and Jena didn’t leave the goose’s side. She named the goose, “Estefano,” but unfortunately Estefano later died from the bird flu.

Still, Savannah says Jena’s actions made his last moments count.

“I do believe what she did was very kind and we need more people like that in the world,” Savannah expressed.