Oh Deer

If it’s not coyotes it’s deer. I’m always amazed when people think agriculture and wildlife somehow exist separately.

Coming home the other night I saw one of the big herds of deer running at us. I stopped and we watched them come at us. The car sitting there didn’t bother or slow them. It gave them a target if anything.

They ran in front of us and seemed to panic there, as we sat still. Right in front of us some stopped, some kept going, some went back and forth a few times then dove head first into the electric fence.

Groaning, knowing the damage they do and that the cows are in that field I sent my overly energetic son to survey the damage. He said the fence was gone. Hoping that just meant knocked out of the insulators we headed towards home.

Which is when the rest of the deer came back! I stopped, again. They ran at us in a panic and through the fence, again. In a different spot. One of them hung up a little. Got out a ways and did a flip. I’d have more sympathy if he had been running from something.

Knowing for sure the fence was gone there we hurried home. Trying to beat darkness, to gather supplies and get back out to repair the damage while we could still see a little.