I had a coffee date this morning to say a bittersweet goodbye to a dear friend. Bitter for me as I will miss her goofy, funny, heart of gold self and her wonderful outlook on life. Sweet for her as she has gotten a dream job with the Port Authority and will be living in a more populated area where there are actually things to do besides talk about hay and watch the chickens molt. She will be living amidst bunches of people which suits her gregarious self much better and even though this country mouse will miss her greatly, I am happy that she is happy.
After big hugs laced with a few tears, we parted ways and I headed home making a list of what needed done first in my head. As I turned off the highway onto the dirt road, I barely noticed what I assumed was a small dog about 1/4 mile ahead of me. It was joined by a much taller and very thin dog......which wait a minute..........squinting....... I could see this was a young mama deer with what turned out to be a very tiny (for this late in the season) fawn.
Now I was within 15 feet of them and I gently braked and waited enjoying this unexpected sight. The mama after a moments hesitation while she looked at me, decided to proceed with her plan "A" and continued crossing the road to the other side. This left the little fawn standing in the road alone looking even tinier than it had looked before, while I sat there trying to freeze and look non threatening.
After a long pause the baby simply lost its nerve, executed its own plan "B", wheeled around and scampered back to the side or the road it had started from. Oh no...doe!
This was not good.
Doe on one side
Fawn on the other
and the big intrusive presence of me in the middle.
They both just froze and watched me, waiting. After looking ahead and behind and seeing no other vehicles in sight, I eased my way forward whilst mom watched on one side and babe on the other. After I was about 50 feet ahead the Doe went back to her fawn and I got to see the mother and child reunion in my rear view mirror.
Perhaps the class in road crossing 101 was canceled for another day.
As for me, I drove home feeling all Marjorie Keenan Rawlingsish and I am reminded still once again of why I love where I live so much.
What another gorgeous story from you Indie — i was there with you and the doe and fawn. it really is a priviledge to witness so simple an event.
ReplyDeletethank you for telling. are those your pictures? are those the stars of the show?
I have three doe that visit my back yard occasionally and I love them. We live in the woods and mow only the front yard and leave the rest natural. The doe like to lie under a group of trees at the edge of our patio and so we can sit in our kitchen and watch them. There is a creek at the edge of the property and it attracts every kind of critter, including Bobcats and Cougars (not the African kind, of course. These are mountain lions).
ReplyDeleteI was in the greenhouse one evening at dusk and a young Bobcat walked down the sidewalk in front of our house. He was too young to know that he was out of his domain, I guess. I was sitting about five feet from him as he passed. The windows were closed so he did not know I was there. He walked to the end of the walk, turned around and walked past me again. Wonderful little guy.
How glorious, Maggie! i'm clapping my hands with glee at the breatures you see and will see in the future.
ReplyDeletei know what cougars are — my cousin insisted i take her dog and a gun with me when i said i wanted to go walking in the woods above her farm in Oregon as she warned me what i may encounter. i took the dog, but not the gun. i mean to say: what the heck sort of damage could i do with a blooming gun, for goodness' sake! lol.
later in the day we went to a ranch restaurant where they had a stuffed cougar to give me a kick in the arse of realisation those critters are big uns and could cause damage to a person!
My brother-in-law and his wife, Charlotte, were visiting us from Alaska one summer. Charlotte and I were still up and sitting on the patio at 3:00am catching up on all the family news. We had the outside lights off so that we didn’t attract bugs and were using the light coming from the kitchen windows. We heard a low growl from a big cat. We looked at each other. Then there was a big growl and we were out of our chairs and into the kitchen in a flash. We could hear the cat running. We had pushed the heavy wrought iron chairs away from the table on a wooden deck and made enough noise that the cat had run away. I read in the paper a week later that a cougar was spotted a mile down the creek.
ReplyDeleteHe just wanted petting, bless.
ReplyDeleteNo, he wanted to eat me. LOL
ReplyDeleteParanoia! ha ha ha ha ha!
ReplyDeleteParanoia! Is that some type of toasted Italian sandwich??!
ReplyDeleteIf only. i seem to consume a helping of paranoia evey so often. lol.
ReplyDelete