Hotel welcomes goose guest for fifth time

Gabby looked quite comfortable relaxing on a thick sofa at The Shores Resort & Spa. Every so often, she glanced over at other guests as they stepped off the elevator or sauntered through the upscale hotel lobby. Curious adults and children inched closer, flashing smiles and cameras as if they'd run into an A-list movie star. "Is this like a famous duck?" one woman asked, before snapping a cell-phone photo. "The Aflac duck?" "It's a goose," Jennifer Thomas said, politely correcting her fellow guest.

Goose and goose owners - Thomas, and her husband Larry, of Roanoke, Va., - were spending their fifth straight Thanksgiving weekend together at the pet-friendly hotel - as in dogs and cats normally. Gabby's the exception, given her good behaviour and clean reputation - thanks to frequent diapering. She only honked a bit as she was led by a leash past hotel employees and guests.



"She's just like having a 2-year-old all the time," said Jennifer Thomas, 38, with a grin. "She's affectionate and gets into stuff." Gabby, a somewhat rare Sebastopol goose who turns 5 in March, is a pampered part of the family, which also consists of a dog, three parrots and a chinchilla. But only Gabby goes on vacations. "She thinks she's a person," Thomas said.

But booking a hotel room can be difficult, even at pet-friendly places. Some folks taking reservations assume it's a prank call that the couple is traveling with a goose. But Gabby is no simple farm animal. A stay in a kennel or vet's office would simply be unsuitable for this goose. "It would stress her out," Thomas predicted. "So if she can't go, we don't go." The couple always pack Gabby's crate, special feed and a large supply of diapers when heading to The Shores Resort & Spa.

There's a video here.