There are lots of different wild life in our neighborhood. We’ve seen deer, fox, coyote, turkeys, opossums, and raccoons just to name a few. Not too far from our house, I even saw a bear!
This little guy was hiding in our yard.
A couple of weeks ago on our afternoon walk, I stopped to pick up after Delilah (siriusly, scoop that poop!) and I suddenly felt like I was being watched.
When I turned around, here’s what I saw.
I think they were on the young side, honestly, I didn’t see the one hiding at first.
My point is, I’ve sort of gotten used to seeing various animals in and around our neighborhood.
But last week, I experienced something I’d never seen before.
It started around 5:00 am, when the alarm went off. I got up, went to shut off the air conditioner (it was warm that night!) and I heard what sounded to me like a toddler talking outside my window.
WTF? I thought, who the hell has their kid outside at this time of morning?
Naturally, I pulled the curtain aside to see if I could figure it out.
That’s when I saw it.
I had to look twice to make sure it was a deer, because from where I was, it looked very large. It was also walking up the middle of the street and looking on both sides of the street.
LOOKING. ON. BOTH. SIDES. OF. THE. STREET.
As I let the curtain fall, I thought I heard that high pitched toddler sound again.
She must be looking for her baby I thought. I was filled with a sense of wonder at my witness to this occurrence. I told my Hubby about it as I went about my morning chores.
Sampson and I did our walk, then it was Delilah’s turn. Naturally, Delilah wanted to do her favorite morning walk route, which starts on our street, then moves over one street, loops around and comes back.
I carry lights because it’s dark in the morning, and there are wooded areas where we walk, and I’m a nervous Nellie.
It was as we were getting to our turn around spot, which has no street light, and bypasses a wooded area, when it happened. I looked up at the house on the corner, and saw what I thought was two little deer statues.
It startled me, and I thought to myself, why the hell do people put animal statues on their lawns that close to the road? As my light fell away, I thought I saw a movement. Did that statue move, I thought?
Hey, cut me some slack, it was ONLY 6:00 AM and I hadn’t had any coffee yet.
I shone my light again, and stared at the statues.
Then the first statue moved and the second one followed and the two little deer ran down the street AWAY from us.
“Hey! You’re going the wrong way!” I shouted after them, “Your mom is back there and she’s looking for you.”
I’m still worried and hope that Mama found her babies. Does anyone have any idea how deer find each other?
Sounds a lot like my gramma’s neighborhood. She has all kinds of wildlife and tons of deer. Last spring we saw a mom with twin fawns, so cute! Around here we occasionally see opossums, deer, fox, and coyotes. Mom worries about the coyotes, but last year we had fox following us on runs and walks which Mom did not like, and one was hanging out in our street in the middle of the day. Odd stuff.
All we ever get around here are gophers. I am jealous.
I’ve never seen a gopher in real life! This is so cool!
What fun to see! We enjoyed seeing Mama deer and her baby in our yard quite often back in the spring and summer. They haven’t been around much lately, probably because the woods are filled with acorns for them to eat now. When I walk the dogs in our woods, we see plenty of signs they’re out there (I am saying “leave it” to the dogs a lot!). They also leave tracks by our apple trees, so they must be out there more at night now. (maybe if I got up earlier like you do, I’d see them more!)
So exciting. I’m sure they found each other. All that jabbering has to have worked eventually.
Isn’t it crazy seeing how many deer are in developed neighborhoods? One of my old co-workers actually hit one on a major downtown street in Ithaca a few years ago!
Hope the family all found each other.
That’s pretty dang cool! I love it when the day starts out with a wildlife sighting. I always presume it’s a lucky sign. Moms will often go in opposite directions to take potential predators away from babies. They will reunite when the coast is clear. Can I just say that little opossum made me squeal out loud?! Too cotton-pickin’ cute!
Wow! I love seeing little baby deer. I hope they found each other, too. I think they are pretty good at reuniting with each other, so I have high hopes! I love the opossum picture–I have such a soft spot for those because my first dog was named Possum.
Wow, sounds like an adventful walk? (is adventful a word? My computer is telling me not, but I thought it was… no wait I mean eventful. Guess who hasn’t had her coffee yet :)) Anyways, when I see things like this I just have to tell myself that it all worked out ok and hope for the power of positivity.
Oh, I hope there was a mother and child(ren) reunion! We don’t have deer here in the Big City, although it’s amazing what we do see since San Diego is – in many areas – built on a canyon system. In addition to the usual small critters (bunnies, squirrels, opposums, skunks(!)), we’ve also seen coyotes and even a bobcat!
I read this post earlier this week on Feedly but didn’t get a chance to come comment. i think it is so funny because my boyfriend saw a huge deer across the street in our suburban neighborhood a day or two before I saw your post. Then, the following night, we were bringing in groceries and heard coyotes, it was almost like we had the same week! I’m sure the momma found her babies and they found their way back to safety. Loved the way you told the story, made me giggle 🙂