Deer Friend

Okay, it’s official: Our dog is in the pocket of Big Deer. We elected that dog to look after our interests, but he’s obviously on the take. Why else did we have OVER A DOZEN DEER yesterday IN THE SIDE YARD, and no dog in sight?

Charlie called me to the back door to look at the deer at the bottom of the sledding hill–no, two deer–no, three…. One after another, they popped into view. I ran and grabbed my camera. Then #1 daughter drove in and they scattered and–ran? No, children, they strolled. They moseyed. They sashayed. They lollygagged. They slouched off, laughing and shrugging and punching each other in the biceps. Damn hoodlums.

There were well over a dozen of these things, and deer are HUGE. When I see one, I think of Teddy, who was in the rehab with Grandpa. Teddy had an imagination bigger than a deer, and he was always talking about the barn-full of deer the government was paying him to keep, and how a full-grown buck weighed two thousand pounds and could eat the top out of a tree. Of course, Teddy claimed to be married or formerly married to every woman on the staff, and once told me a long story about watching a Greyhound race between a pack of dogs and a bus. But he was right about deer being bigger than a breadbox.

I snapped several pictures, but the deer didn’t show in any of them. It’s like they were invisible without movement. It was freaky.

Oh, and, as soon as the deer had gone over the hill, here came the dog, looking for food and barking at my mother.

The dog is a sell-out.

Oh, and I’m also blogging at Fatal Foodies today, on the subject of rutabagas.

WRITING PROMPT: Bring a character face-to-face with a deer.

MA

About

I was born in Louisville, Kentucky, but now live in the woods in southern Indiana. Though I only write fiction, I love to read non-fiction. The more I learn about this world, the more fantastic I see it is.

You may also like...

One thought on “Deer Friend

  1. Sarah G

    January 25, 2011 at 9:22am

    Son-in-Law: “Wish I had my gun. We’d be having venison tonight!”

    Oh, wait, you meant FICTION. 🙂

    Cynthia: “How beautiful!”
    Dylan: “Don’t take too much of his blood, luv. They like to faint.”

    Permalink  ⋅ Reply
    • Author

      Marian Allen

      January 25, 2011 at 11:04am

      Bwa-ha-ha-haaa! Fainting deer! Cynthia better watch herself–these deer would just PRETEND to faint to throw her off-guard, then she’d be picking her fangs out of the lower limbs of the pine trees.

      Permalink  ⋅ Reply
    • Author

      Marian Allen

      January 25, 2011 at 11:06am

      Really? No deer in Holland, or no deer where you happen to be? Do you have rabbits? Because this dog takes bribes from rabbits, too.

      Permalink  ⋅ Reply
  2. Nancy Williams

    January 25, 2011 at 12:16pm

    I just left a blog that had pictures of mule deer. She lives in Canada. We have deer, mule deer, but I’ve never seen them out front. We do have a family of fox that like to chase the local cats and small dogs. Owners beware. And really scary, a pack of four coyotes went after my 3 year old grandson on Halloween night. His mom took one look, grabbed him, and ran inside.
    Nancy
    N. R. Williams, fantasy author

    Permalink  ⋅ Reply
    • Author

      Marian Allen

      January 25, 2011 at 12:29pm

      Eeee on the coyotes! Mom was smart, there. When wild animals become habituated to humans, that’s when the conflict and danger begin. Brrrrr!

      Permalink  ⋅ Reply

Leave a Reply, If You Ple-az

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.