BUFFALO, N.Y. � Near the final resting place of the Cases, the Blicks and the Beyers, beneath the still-barren branches of Forest Lawn Cemetery's trees, an unusual friendship has blossomed this spring between a deer and a nesting goose, who appears to have lost her mate but gained a protector.

For the past week or so, the deer has been standing near an urn where the Canada goose has taken up residence, positioning itself between the vessel and the car and foot traffic that passes.

Craig Cygan noticed the unlikely pair on his regular patrols through the cemetery, where he and his border collies are tasked with shooing away the normally nuisance geese. The deer caught his eye first, standing in the same place day after day.

"One day I got out of the car to take a closer look and he kind of approached me, but it wasn't to run away or anything," Cygan said Thursday. "He was just trying to stand in between me and something ... and I looked and in the urn there was a goose.

"I came back the next day and the same exact thing," he said. "I tried to take a closer look with a camera and he stood right up and came right between us."

The brown and black goose stays low in the urn, poking her head out to look around. With no mate around, she doesn't seem to mind when the deer lies down against the concrete pot or takes a peek inside it. Cemetery officials believe the deer is a male they've been seeing around for more than a year.

"The goose usually protects its nest against everything but for some reason it's allowing that deer to come up and look inside," Cygan said.

Cornell University wildlife expert Paul Curtis said deer are curious creatures by nature but he's never heard of a goose and a deer having a social relationship.

"The deer may have come across this goose out of curiosity," he said, "but I don't know of anything that would keep the deer coming back day after day other than curiosity."

Forest Lawn Cemetery President Joseph Dispenza attributes it to divine intervention in a spiritual place.

"It's one creature of the Lord looking out after another creature of the Lord and not yet figuring out that they're not supposed to," he said. "It's a love story and whether you believe in a divinity through a particular church or you believe in the divinity as exhibited through nature ... this is just an extension of that."

Dispenza hopes to install a live webcam so the public can follow the friendship and the arrival of the goslings, which could be several weeks away. There also are plans for temporary fencing to protect the animals and give visitors a place to watch them without frightening them.

Established in 1849, Forest Lawn is a 269-acre oasis of nature in the upstate New York city of Buffalo and counts President Millard Fillmore, a native son, among its inhabitants. The cemetery's wildlife, accustomed to tour buses and joggers, tends to be tolerant of people.

If you google there is some nice film footage too!