The other morning, I was getting out of the shower and happened to glance out the window. Here’s what I saw:
There were two deer grazing around in the back yard. I called the girls to the window as quietly as I could and took a couple of pictures. I regret that I couldn’t take the screen off, though – that would have scared them away and they were skittish enough as it was – so we have to settle for lousy photos.
This one stayed for a while – its (her? his? can anyone tell?) companion was startled off by Toeses who, I think, was completely freaked out by turning the corner and finding them in his yard. Since, unlike Ogranic Mama, I don’t have any vegetation I feel the need to defend against deer, I enjoyed having them visit us. Besides, I much prefer having them in our yard over having them in the street; it’s much safer for all concerned…
The other morning, I turned from one major roadway to another near my school and had to stop right in the middle to let a family of dear cross. Then, in the parking lot of our school, I had to break for turkeys. No, not teachers, real turkeys.
How sweet. I love seeing unexpected wildlife around my house. It feels like a visit from an animal spirit.
When deer visit our er, salad bar, they usually decimate the vegetation, but I can remember when their presence elicited an, “Oh, so cool! Quick, c’mere and look!” kind of reaction instead of, “Honey, go get the pellet gun!”
Yesterday, the car I was riding in had to stop to let 17 wild turkeys cross the road!! Wild kingdom, indeed.
The things you see when you don’t have your shotgun.
I’m kidding, of course, I can barely bring myself to kill bugs.
In our prior house (couple years ago) we’d see as many as 8 or 10 deer in the yard. If I stepped outside, they’d look at me a while and saunter away–they knew they were safe, but they probably wanted me to feel good so they pretended to be if not frightened, at least cautious. They’d eat a lot of our stuff, but I didn’t care.
O’Mama, I TOTALLY appreciate your response to deer. If they came and helped themselves to something that I worked hard to produce, I’d be mad at them, too. Gardening is a lot of hard work – so much so that I don’t do it – so I’m not invested in keeping the munching beasties away….
And I’m sorry, but turkeys are just dumb. We’ve got them around here, too, and regardless of how much I shout out the window or honk and flash my headlights, some of them can’t figure out how to get the hell out of the road.
Interesting how the top picture with the two deer almost looks like they’re on the other side of a body of water (probably because the picture was taken through a screen).
Gee, I don’t know, TwoBlue – I always preferred a thirty-ought-six myself…
If the turkeys can’t figure out how to get out of the road, Mrs. C., then you have a free Thanksgiving dinner, don’t you?
Our tiny miniature poodle mix was recently in a stare down with an ENORMOUS male deer. I only wish I had gotten pictures. It was hilarious….the deer pawing the ground and throwing its antlers while the dog is crouched down in hunting posistion.
It was very National Geographic/Wild Kingdom-esque!
I don’t think Toeses was thinking about his big cat heritage – I’m pretty sure the thought of trying to run down the deer for dinner never occurred to the beastie; I think he was more shocked to come around the corner to find these in his territory. My guess is that his thoughts ran less like “Oooh! DINNER!” and more along the lines of “WHOA! WHAT the HELL?!?”