Deer Season

It's deer season. Not in the hunting sense, but in the sense that I've been seeing them constantly the last few days. It began last Saturday evening. I had guests from out of town and at dusk we were sitting on my porch (which overlooks woods and a creek) when we heard snorting. The farm across the road has horses and I sometimes hear them, but this seemed closer. We peered through the trees, but couldn't see anything. And then suddenly, a white-tailed deer appeared at the edge of the woods. We watched for a while, as the deer strolled through the yard. One of my visitors said she saw the deer with a fawn, but by then it was dark and I couldn't see.

The next evening my human guests were gone, but my other visitors showed up again. This time it was a young buck, first appearing in the same spot and then wandering through the yard, even standing in the middle of a wide-open space in full light (it was earlier). On Monday morning I came out to the porch just after dawn and saw a deer in just about the same spot. On Tuesday morning there was a deer in the driveway, close to the house, that I watched from my bathroom window. She strolled to the fence, hopped over, and started munching on a salad of honeysuckle and wild grape vines. A few minutes later when I let Bhikku out into the backyard, she was there and casually leaped out of the yard to escape in time. This morning she was even closer to the house in the morning and instead of letting Bhikku out, I spoke to her so that she'd get the idea she needed to leave before the dog came after her. And then just now Bhikku spotted the young buck from the porch. It must have been frustrating for the dog not to be able to give chase. The deer just grazed, completely ignoring the furious barking.

As far as I'm concerned, the deer are all welcome. I'm not a farmer. I'm not even a gardener really. They eat the day-lilies and the hosta, but I don't really care. I get more pleasure out of watching these beautiful animals.