Very Sad Day

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