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Nature pays a visit, much to dog’s consternation

4 min read

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The dog-versus-deer standoff erupted in the side yard. The louder the dog barked, the closer the deer came. If not for the leash holding the dog back, there would have been violence.

We are hosting a small, feisty puggle this week. The visit coincides with the blooming of life all around our yards. This time last year I wrote about our witnessing the birth of three fawns in the thicket beyond our lawn, how two of the babies wobbled onto their legs within a few moments, but how the third and smallest struggled for long, worrisome minutes before finally falling in line behind its mother and two siblings.

Two of the fawns grew up and joined our neighborhood herd. We never saw a third. As winter came, we watched the spots disappear as the babies turned teenager and then adult.

By this week, the earth had completed its spin around the sun, and we saw a new baby in the thicket.

“The mother is one of our babies from last year,” said the farmer, who used the pronoun “our” in the way we both regard the deer. They’ve become part of the landscape. Their gentle and leggy presence is always with us. When the light above the garage wakes me in the middle of the night, I know one of the deer has tripped the sensor. They get closer all the time.

That doe came as close as ever, beckoned by the puggle’s bark. The dog was on a leash, close to the deck, when she noticed the new mother doe in the trees across the yard. It took only a few sharp barks for the doe to emerge from the shadows to investigate.

What followed was both tense and fascinating. The dog barked more and the doe moved closer. At one point, the doe assumed what I can only surmise was a fighting stance, with neck craned forward and one leg pulled up and coiled back.

“She sees the dog as a threat to her baby,” said the farmer. He suggested the deer might be thinking “coyote” and not “family pet.” We brought the dog inside and the doe retreated.

But that was not the end of the standoff. While eating dinner the same day, we watched as the puggle started barking through the kitchen door. The doe was now just 10 feet away from the house, staring back at the dog; glass and lumber do not interrupt the maternal instinct.

Since then, we’ve kept the puggle away from the glass doors and inside the house. That doe has a job to do, and we should let her.

It’s likely the third doe born last year didn’t survive. We also saw an adult deer dead along the two-lane road outside our neighborhood last month. When deer live among humans, death by car becomes part of the circle of life.

As does the ruining of tomato plants and flowering bushes. In most places, deer are considered pests. The farmer decided not to even bother with a large garden this year, because they tore down the fencing last year. I’m not putting out potted flowers, either; they wouldn’t last the weekend.

For that reason, I don’t get to look out my window to see pink and red blossoms on the deck. Instead now, I’ll see the mother doe standing at the edge of the yard, watching. Even without flowers, there’s nature to see. It’s unfurling in all its wild, motherly beauty all around us.

Beth Dolinar can be reached at cootiej@aol.com.

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