One morning in early fall, I found a pair of wild geese on our pond. The beautiful sight caught me by _______ because we’d never seen geese there before. I _______ they would soon be on their way, so I enjoyed the _______ to be close to them. I wondered where they came from and why they’d _______our pond.

The next morning, the geese were _______ our guests, so I watched them at a distance to show them I meant no _______. Still, I couldn’t_______ getting a closer look. I stopped by some trees near the water’s edge and quietly looked at them through the _______. I was surprised to see that they were _______ me.

As the days passed, I continued to see them every-day. They craned their necks and raised their heads________ but seemed to realize I was a friend. Later, my ________ about why they were staying at the pond so long changed to concern. It wouldn’t be long before the________ winter came and the pond froze over.

One day, as they were feeding in the grass, I discovered the reason for their ________——the male had a broken left __________. He was unable to fly, and his mate would not leave him behind. I asked a wildlife biologist friend what I should do. He explained that sometimes a broken wing will ________ by itself and suggested that I let nature take its course.

On the first day of November, I ________ sight of the geese running toward the pond, beating their wings with great effort. Both__________ climbed higher and flew over the pond. Then they turned back toward me, flying no more than 50 feet over my head as if to say goodbye. Then they were________.

The season’s first snow fell the every next day. The birds must have________ that winter was coming and that it was time to go. I miss them very much now and I’ll never forget their________ to each other. We can all learn a lesson or two from this pair.

The young seal couldn’t have been more than two days old, and yet he was all alone. Sometimes he would swim ____ ,but he always came back. At first we thought it was_____that he kept swimming back to us, until we noticed that he obviously had been _____and had nowhere else to go. We called him “Curious George”.

Without his mother’s milk, George appeared very _____with his eyes closed. I jumped into the water and swam up to him,______we could be close enough. My heart went out to George and I just hoped that he had the ________to interact (互动) with me. Suddenly he _____ his eyes and immediately he jumped up between my arms, putting his head against my chest. It was a(n) _____moment. But I knew that George wouldn’t _____without some help.

We __________the local conservation volunteers. They were _____that in the absence of his mother, he had developed a ______relationship with us. They promised they would bring him to an area with______people living there and keep an eye on him. Even though it hurt to see him   ________,we knew that he was in better hands.

The next day we ______the conservation volunteers and asked how George was doing. ______the volunteers informed us that he was too close to humans, we realized that was probably our _____! They decided to bring him to a small island wildlife reserve with a lot of seals in the area, where they could better _____him.

A week later, we called again, and were informed that George was______in the water swimming with other seals. George was______and back to his world. And he will always swim in my heart.