PART THREE You’ve got a friend Enter the (mostly) freewheeling world of a White Rock goose

THE SIGNS AND ADS STARTEDAPPEARING around the neighborhood and on digital message boards in mid-April last year.

“Urgent: Wilbur Goose, leader of a big goose gaggle at White Rock Lake, is missing.”

The pleas for Wilbur’s safe return initially were met with amusement and a spattering of jokes — “The goose is on my kitchen table” or “Have you checked inside the coyotes?”

But if it wasn’t a prank, and it wasn’t, the obvious question is, there are dozens upon dozens of geese at White Rock Lake, so how do you know that one, in particular, is missing?

White Rock Lake frequenter Annette Abbott chuckles at the query.

“If you ever met Wilbur,” she says, “you would understand.” Wilbur wasn’t just any wild waterfowl. He was a lover — had a girlfriend goose, Priscilla, who stuck by him until her 2010 death. They were “the reigning royalty of the goose gaggle,” Abbott says. Wilbilla, as it were.

He was a prankster. He loved to play and was known to “goose” (pinch one on the backside) from time to time.

He was brave — known to stare down dogs.

He was a friend. He’d eat crackers right out of your hand, but he especially loved whole grain honey bread. If you approached the lake by car, Wilbur might waddle up and peck on your window, Abbott says.

Jeffrey M. Thurston, M.D

David M. Bookout, M.D.

Julie M. Hagood, M.D.

James K. Richards, M.D. (center row)

Jennifer Muller, M.D.

John D. Bertrand, M.D. (front row)

Jane E. Nokleberg, M.D.

Hampton B. Richards, M.D.