Scout's Close Encounter...
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On June 26, 2001, Scout and I were out in the yard at SLP just a couple of minutes after 8 am. We were going to play a bit (ok, Scout was going to play, I was just there to open doors and toss the frisbee) in the relative cool of the morning. I quickly made the rounds of the butterfly garden and my research plants to check up on things. We don't want Scout thinking that the ONLY time we go out is to play, after all. That IS what he thinks and he usually shadows us until we go and get a toy.
So, I was somewhat surprised when I turned around and Scout was nowhere in sight. When I called him and whistled, he came bounding out from the other side of the truck (for those of you who hadn't heard yet, we bought a truck...but that's an entirely different story). He had been between the truck and the fence of the yard and the south meadow (where the greenhouse is going).
He was all excited and quickly turned from me and ran back so I casually sauntered over, behind him, toward the truck. As I came abreast of the cab, Scout came bounding west parallel to the fence, being "shadowed," on the other side of the fence, by a white-tailed deer!
Imagine my surprise! Nope, you can't...
Scout and the deer faced off on opposite sides of the fence— the deer, once it saw me, raised its "flag" and jumped away, until Scout barked and it stopped dead, turned and trotted back to the fence.
I was flabbergasted, to say the least. Scout and the deer "played" me and my shadow for a bit— every way that Scout turned, the deer would follow; whenever Scout stopped, the deer would stop and stare, lifting its eyes every now and then to see what I was doing.
When Scout got within about 6 to 8 feet of the fence, the deer would stamp its forelegs, alternating from one leg to the other, never taking its eyes off of him. Clearly, an alarm or warning response that Scout just didn't understand. All he wanted to do was play...
Of course, by this time I was cursing myself for not bringing the camera out with me on this of all mornings. I let the "close encounter" go on for about 15 minutes, all the while talking to Scout (and the white-tail), to calm one down and reassure the other that we weren't going to hurt it. Every once in a while I'd call Scout over and make him sit and watch from a distance as the deer moved away. Whenever I released Scout, he'd run towards the fence, the deer would hear the rustling vegetation, turn and trot right back to the fence. After seeing this a couple of times, I wondered whether I could go in for the camera. I called Scout over, turned and we slowly made our way from the truck to the house. As soon as I moved the deer turned tail and ran (but what else did I expect?).
I grabbed the camera and Scout and I returned towards the gate to the south meadow. The deer was nowhere in sight, but sure enough, as soon as he heard Scout's guttural yelping, he came back.
So I did, much to my relief (not to mention the veracity of my story!), get the photos you see here of parts of the subsequent second encounter. The deer was plainly defensive, facing Scout off. A couple of times they got close enough that the deer reared and rattled the fence when it came down. I think that, if the fence hadn't been there, Scout would've gotten hurt!
Of course, he thought this was the greatest of fun and all thoughts of chasing a lowly frisbee had fled from his mind. It's amazing how fast we pathetic humans can be replaced!
All in all, the encounter lasted some 40 minutes (at which point I finished the roll of film that was in the camera).
As we turned to go back to the house, the deer trotted off— not too far off, just far enough to keep me under watchful eye. We came back to the porch of the house, the deer watching us all the time, and settled down to just watch it. It watched for a few minutes and then, for the first time, made some vocalizations (that I just cannot describe), turned tail and ran. I watched it disappear, finally, into the east meadow and we came back into the house.
I changed out the roll of film so I could get it into the mail the same day. It took all of maybe 5 minutes and I made Scout stay in the house while I walked it out to the road. As I stepped off the porch, there was the deer, back again, standing on the other side of the fence as if to say "so, where did you go?" As I walked out to the mailbox, I admonished it to "go find your own dog to play with" and it just watched me. As I walked up the drive on my way back to the house, it turned tail and ran again.
It returned a half dozen times or more over the next few days (including once when Pat got to watch) but the encounters were tame in comparison to this first day.
A most enjoyable and memorable morning, for all three of us, I suspect.
Phil (and Scout, too!)
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