Doe, A Deer

Well, I think I know how Grandma felt in the Christmas song after she was flattened by a reindeer. I almost got ran over by a deer this morning.

Since the main herd is currently located around the far hay field, I have to drive up the road to feed them each day. This morning I had a bale of hay in the back of the John Deere Gator. The dog, Jackson, was tethered and sitting comfortably on the top of the bale (his favorite spot when traveling the county road). Butler, the other dog was tethered and standing on the passenger side of the Gator. I had paused at the end of the driveway for a log truck to go by, once t he truck was passed, I pulled out onto the road. This was the first day of moisture since our heat wave last week, and it put me in a good mood.

The sporadic raindrops were bouncing off my glasses and stinging my bare arms, and I was singing, It’s a Wonderful World. You know the song, ‘There are leaves of green, red roses too, they all grow for me and for you…’ or something close to that. When I got to ‘…and I think to myself, it’s a wonderf…’ the noise of the Gator (or my singing) must have scared a deer off the left side of the road. She came running toward me, I saw her when she was near the white line. I slammed the brakes and she jumped over the hood.

It happened so fast the dogs didn’t even have time to bark, but they made up for it seconds after she made a graceful leap into the brush on the right side of the road. Butler and Jackson were yelping and straining at their leashes. Slobber was flying everywhere. I think some of it may have been from me because I was pretty worked up also.

A fantastic near encounter with a beautiful creature and I lived to tell the tale. It really makes me appreciate nature and say again, what a wonderful world.