Behrfeet's avatar

Behrfeet

Grant
273 Watchers678 Deviations
36.7K
Pageviews

Very Sad Day

3 min read
This morning when I went out to feed the deer I noticed something dark out on the ice ..... about an 1/8 of a mile West of here. I was pretty sure I knew what I would find but I wanted to make sure. And so I walked down the ice and as I got closer it was obvious it was a deer. It was a familiar face .... my close friend Lilty. She had become a daily fixture in my day. Each morning she was there waiting with the rest of the deer for me to get out of bed and feed them all. Then when the rest would leave she would come up to the side window for an extra handout. She would get my banana and orange peels .... both of which she loved. I bought a couple of bags of apples and would cut those up and feed those to her as well. She was looking pretty thin when she first showed up but with the extra care she looked better and better each day. She soon learned when my meal time was and would show up right on schedule to get her treat. She was sooooo gentle. She would eat right from my hand and was always so careful not to bite down on my flesh however she did often get my fingers all covered in slobber.

She seemed to have some vision problems and so she was easily bullied by the other deer. But she was never scared of me. So as soon as the other deer started fighting over the feed she would leave and come to me. Together we would walk away from the chaos and I would feed her out of the pail and massage her sore neck. She would spend most days wandering about the yard and would often sleep in the sun. If she was out on the road and a car would come along she would trot into this yard. She had accepted this place as home and knew it was safe. In the evenings, if I BBQ-ed  out on the deck she would come up behind me and sniff at my heels. I've never experienced anything close to this with any other wild animal. It was amazing ..... delightful .... and so special. I will truly miss having her around.



I'm not sure what took her life. From the single set of tracks it appeared to be a canine for sure. We often hear Coyotes calling and yelping in the hills but I've never heard of them killing for sport so I suspect it was a domestic breed of some sort. But that is only a suspicion .... I have no real proof. The night before last I also lost little Baby Billy under almost the same identical conditions. He was the tiniest of the herd and very cute. It appeared he was sleeping in a yard East of me and was ambushed in his sleep. He was also dragged out on the ice and just left .... another kill for sport. Again just a single set of canine tracks ..... and as with Lilty ... just a few tracks ... a quick kill and gone.

If anyone is curious I have a few videos posted of her ......

www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBmN2X…

vimeo.com/21563570
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
Ok ..... I really need some feedback here because I am very confused about something that happened last evening. I appreciate it when people are honest ...... kind ..... but honest so I am not really looking to just be simply consoled. I truly am trying to understand if my thinking is way out to lunch or if I am reading the situation correctly. And I do understand that art is absolutely subjective so everyone is not going to feel the same way. So I am not wanting to just stir up some shit or anything .... I am just really confused on this one.

I recently posted what I thought was a unique shot of a Mule Deer Buck doing what they do best ... hide. I don't know what other people have experienced but from all the years of watching these wild deer that coexist around this lake (50+ years) I find that the Bucks are VERY skillful at hiding themselves. The does and young ones are often seen grazing off on a hillside or even occasionally, late at night, wandering thru the yard. But not the bucks. They're there .... you just don't see them. Unless you happen to accidentally walk up on their hiding spot. Then they explode out of there and thus startle the crap out of you since you had NO IDEA they were there. At that point all you see is ankles and asshole quickly heading over the top of the next hill and that wouldn't be the photograph I was hoping to get.

So when I saw this 250 lb buck disappear behind a tree I was very hopeful. Now I knew he was there ..... I just couldn't see him! But he couldn't see me either. They have an amazing sense of smell so he may have THOUGHT I was there but wasn't sure maybe? I dunno. But I thought all I had to do was be really really still and quiet and simply wait him out. And sure enough after about 4 mins or so he HAD to sneak a peek. And I was ready with the camera and got what I thought was this pretty decent shot .... behrfeet.deviantart.com/art/Sn… that was the only image I got cuz once he realized he had blown his cover he was GONE!

So when I received this response after submitting the image to a group I was kind of confused ....

"Hi,

I am really sorry, but this one won't be able to make to the group's gallery. I do like the details around its eye/ear, but that tree branch in foreground is too imposing."

It was a very nice rejection and I actually happy they did tell me why. Most don't and then you have no idea how to improve. Although I do know it's probably just a lack of available time to respond to each rejection so that isn't upsetting either. But it's the explanation that has me confused. Isn't the tree (they said "branch") the whole point of the image? Or is the fact that I am so happy I captured the behaviour clouding my judgment to see that it is not a very good shot? :confused:
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
Featured

Very Sad Day by Behrfeet, journal

Totally Confused by Behrfeet, journal