"Yes my deer"

[WileEcoyote]

They're aren't my deer actually. Don't even live near my residence. They live and graze on a patch of hills right on the shoulder of Highway 101 in Sonoma County. Like clockwork they are there during daylight hours nibbling on the grasses and anisette stalks that grow right off the edge of the U.S. Highway. See them every day on my way back home from work. On the side of the north bound lane. Never crossing into traffic.

Yet I worry about them. A couple fawns and their apparent mother doe always in the same place. You'd think they would graze higher up the hill so as to avoid the infinitely many scary high speed motorists. Seems the better grasslands too.

But no: They prefer whatever grows right on the edge of the gravel breakdown lane. And during daylight hours they are always there.

How to explain their casual concern with high speed collision death ever present? There has to be a reason why they prefer this harrowing stretch of the hills. I can't figure it exactly. In fact I never gave the matter much thought until just now when i wrote down these words. Wasn't even the intent of my post to examine WHY they live and "work" in such an dangerous location...

But while I'm thinking of it there MUST be a reason they always congregate where they do.

A predator up the highlands that is more shy of traffic than the deer themselves? That's my best guess. Could be a Mountain Lion in the vicinity. Rarely seen by humans. However where there are deer you will find Cougar scat. Lions eat Deer. Deer fear Lions. It's what makes the animal world go round.

A Lion would fear human traffic and smell more than the deer would. Thus the deer are probably safer where there are more humans. Lions haven't learned to let go of their primal aversion to human beings enough to go for the slam dunk easy pickins of hoofed prey near super highways.

Now you can't always count on Mountain Lions being so afraid of humans that they won't attack. However this is usually the case. Meanwhile don't leave the baby in the backyard crib in Lion Country...

Back to my deer:

So I'm traveling to work this morning on the other side of the freeway and decided to look for "my deer". About in the location where they would normally be I see a dead one in the slow lane. My lane in fact. I slow down and swerve a tad to avoid hitting the poor thing. Afterwards I am sad..

One down now there are only two left. So I fear anyway...

Anyway about an hour ago I was coming home from work and looked for my deer. Expecting there to be two instead of three.

To my delight there were three. The morning (dead) deer must have come from another family. A less fortunate group.

While I shouldn't consider the dead deer's passing any less of a tragedy than one of "my own" favorite deer it's still a natural reaction to identify with people and animals you know when they live or die. At least as when compared to the anonymous deaths of people or animals i do not know.

Someone dies in Mississippi? I don't lose sleep. A murder takes place down the street and we talk about it for months afterwards. The poor person in Mississippi is no less of a human being but we always focus differently on living things the farther away they are from us.

Anyway am glad "my deer" are all OK. Will see them tomorrow again. As usual.

[Droopy]

1. You have strayed into Droopy territory with this post

I like contemplative posts like your's and I post stuff like that occasionally. Doesn't get me a lot of replies, though. :) At least not usually.

I am intimately linked with critters and the road seeing as how I'm a truck driver. I've hit several animals in my adventures, but thankfully nothing larger than a raccoon. I've almost hit a deer several times. They are strange creatures when it comes to the road and moving vehicles. In my experience if they are off to the side of the road and they see you coming they will freeze only to jump out in front of you at the last minute to try to cross the road. I almost hit a large buck like that on a two lane road going through the Indiana corn fields last summer. Fortunately, I was able to see the guy before he jumped out there and I knew what he was going to do.

I always feel bad when I hit a critter, but I know that there was nothing I could do to avoid hitting any of them. Some trucking companies will instruct you to hit an animal instead of swerving to try to miss it- even a large animal. They'd rather deal with their hood being fucked up than a flipped over truck. But I still try to avoid hitting animals if I have time.