NORWAY — When Hannah Fujimaki returned from vacation to discover her pet goose Einstein suffered from frostbite on both feet and couldn’t use them, she did what she thought was most humane: She hired a local artisan to build a goosemobile, ­ which in turn helped the artisan cope with the recent death of his wife.

Fujimaki — a 27-year-old Bryant Pond resident who works in Norway — said the gray and white goose is older than she is, clocking in more than 30 years (life expectancy for geese ranges between 10 and 30 years). Even though Einstein was mean to her growing up, she couldn’t put him down.

“He actually was my childhood terror, then he became decrepit,” Fujimaki said. “He’s been a lot nicer to me ever since. He’s a pet; he’s not something I am going to eat.”

A veterinarian said the frostbite would eventually fall off both feet, but Einstein has had problems walking for a couple of years now. Enter Mike Dean.

Dean, a Norway resident, has made birdhouses, sleighs and models of wood for years. Fujimaki was familiar with Dean’s work and asked if he could craft a device to keep her pet goose mobile.

“At first I thought she was putting me on, but she wasn’t,” he said. “I thought about it for a while, and considering that I have two granddaughters about the same age as Hannah, my decision was easy: yes.”

Dean lost Gloria, his wife of 57 years, in December to Parkinson’s disease. It’s been tough for him to go through the grieving process.

“This has been kind of helping with some healing,” he said. “I was glad to be able to help her and give me a little focus during a difficult time.”

The planning part of the project took longer than the actual building, which took a couple of days. There were three renditions of the goosemobile, which is a carpeted cart with railings and wheels that Einstein will be able to push once he regains use of his feet.

The goosemobile features yellow screws on the front representing headlights and red screws on back, flanking the Einstein license plate, that mimic brake lights.

Einstein hasn’t actually been able to push himself on his goosemobile yet because his feet are still healing. Fujimaki said she’s not sure when the frostbite will fall off, but she can see his feet separating from the dead skin. For now, Einstein enjoys sitting on it, eating and drinking water several times a day in the spare bathroom where he’s taken up residence since early February.

“Once the frostbite falls off the base of his foot, he should be fine to push off of it,” she said, adding that there’s a goose equivalent of a dewclaw on the back of his foot that helps keep Einstein steady on the goosemobile.

Einstein has always had a big personality and some of his mean streak could be explained by his past. He was found in a Florida trash can by Fujimaki’s grandmother, who decided to bring the goose to Maine.

“I did not like this goose for 25 years,” Fujimaki said. “It was better than a guard dog. A car would come, he would put his head down and chase it. He was the ringleader of all these other geese.”

Sometimes, she said, she would be surrounded by the birds and couldn’t move until she gave up the food collected from the garden.

Einstein is the only one of his brethren left, and Fujimaki said she treats him like a dog. She also helps him preen since he can’t do it himself any more and gets visibly frustrated.

“I tell him he can’t do that, calm down, stop flapping your wings and freaking out,” she said. “He’s become a lot less nasty. I tell him, ‘No, stop biting me,’ and he’s stopped biting me.”

This larger-than-life goose dines on cracked corn, but also loves iceberg lettuce. He isn’t a fan of loud noises.

“He hates when people yell. He will honk over you until you walk closer to the person and talk more quietly. It’s the volume control,” Fujimaki said, laughing.

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