sighting

When you round the corner at the end of our block you pass a house facing the perpendicular street. Next door to it is another house that faces the parallel street, and as you walk you approach its back yard. This morning as the dogs and I turned the first corner I noticed the shape of two deer in the second house’s back yard. In the dim light of dawn they were too obvious in appearance to be real deer, and I determined that they were probably lawn ornaments that had been added to the house’s holiday yard décor in the last few days. As we got closer my conclusions were confirmed.

But wait. There were deer in the yard! There is a “family” of four that we see pretty regularly—one older doe with three younger deer—as they have a habit of traversing our back yards in the early morning hours noshing on their leisurely breakfast snacks. They had spotted us before we saw them, and were stock still. This morning our usual family had guests with them, another doe and another young one. They stood watching us as I tried to determine whether to continue our pace forward, driving the dogs crazy as they picked up the scent, or wait until the deer decided to move off in another direction. Their position indicated that we were interrupting their route. Too late, Juliet saw them and began straining at the leash, and Dooley began to do likewise. The deer, calm as ever (they’re very familiar with the neighborhood), moved slowly to give us berth and continued to watch. They found a safe distance for them, and we continued on our way.

One of these days I want to have my camera handy when we encounter them. They’re not skittish (not usually), but they do like bad light!