'Oh Deer'-A 911 Story...

[teh_blumchenkinder]

I would be glad if deer were all we had to worry about. :P Somehow, even though my university is most definitely IN town, we still get mountain lions roaming the hill(s) right nearby. Of course, I always ended up reading the "cougar warning" right before I had to walk home. Alone. In the dark.

Yeah. They usually just eat cats, dogs, and ... wait, wasn't there that set of deaths the other year that was attributed to an animal? Eh. Sometimes I love where I live, especially when there's an awesome ski resort an hour away up the mountain, a river right through town, the works... but sometimes...
it's interesting when suspicious deaths make the news and only some of them are from people.

[PepperElf]

Are you sure they meant the 4-legged variety? ;-)

o god... you and i had the same thought

mmm and venison sounds good now.

[bhskittykatt]

We have tons of deer here. I was actually driving downtown once, and I saw a deer running down the road towards me. I slowed down, and Hubby exclaimed, "Why are you slowing down? He's in his lane!"

I did hit a baby deer once. It was just a little bump. The little guy was fine. But it sure gave me a good chance to test my brakes!

[Dasota]

Out by my dad's the deer population was really bad. Lots of accidents and such with deer darting out into traffic... so they released coyotes. There was rumor of a mountain lion or some other bigger cat that was then released to take care of the coyotes.

[protege]

When my grandmother still had her farm, deer were everywhere. A common activity years ago was to go deer-spotting. Grandpa would take us on all the back roads, which meant we usually saw well over 100. Most of those were on the (posted) land owned by the coal company. Come hunting season, the deer would literally disappear on our land--they'd hide on the coal company land...simply because they knew they wouldn't be shot at

But what I found annoying, is that many summers, we'd get people parking their cars along the highway, or even in our driveway...simply to watch the deer in the fields across the road. Fields, which were part of a horse farm. I mean really, did those rednecks *really* think the deer would still be there when hunting season started? Even if they were...you can't hunt there!

[Magpie]

But what I found annoying, is that many summers, we'd get people parking their cars along the highway, or even in our driveway...simply to watch the deer in the fields across the road. Fields, which were part of a horse farm. I mean really, did those rednecks *really* think the deer would still be there when hunting season started? Even if they were...you can't hunt there!

City people stop to watch deer. They're rare and fascinating creatures, don't you know?

[Shalom]

City people stop to watch deer. They're rare and fascinating creatures, don't you know?

When you grew up in Brooklyn, you're darn tootin' they are.

Here in Joisey they're considered pests, eating people's gardens and like that. I still think they're fascinating to watch, if not necessarily rare. (I haven't got a garden.)

[Mytical]

Hey I grew up in the country, and I still love to watch Deer. Especially the younger ones.

[Magpie]

What I was specifically mocking (and I'm part of it) is the phenomenon where the best way to see animals when you're driving through Algonquin Provincial Park is to watch for cars parked on the side of the highway. Pull off, and find out what they're watching. (When it's a bear cub you might want to get back into the car, even though it's a black bear).

[Shalom]

What I was specifically mocking (and I'm part of it) is the phenomenon where the best way to see animals when you're driving through Algonquin Provincial Park is to watch for cars parked on the side of the highway. Pull off, and find out what they're watching.

I can relate. I've spent the past few days vacationing in the Catskills, and I've always wanted to drive on Peekamoose Road, just because of the name (and also because on the old AAA maps it was shown as a dirt road, so I wanted to see the current condition). I had to keep stopping the car to look at the deer, and one turkey that was just standing by the edge of the road. Saw some wonderful waterfalls, too. The locals just barreled on through; guess it was old hat to them by now, like Canada geese are to us.

[blas]

Problems with deer infiltrating your garden?

Build a fence and reinforce it with Irish Spring soap. They HATE it.

[Difdi]

"Cougar Warning"

Are they really that dangerous if unprovoked? I mean, if you threw something at the mountain lion, that would be one thing, but is being near one enough provocation for them?

Yes, they're extremely dangerous. All cats have a size range of what is considered prey. If a potential target is below the range, it might be worth playing with if the cat is bored, but it's not really food. If it's above the range, it's too dangerous/too much trouble and is avoided.

For your average size cougar, that range starts at about infant size, and continues up to larger than Shaq. Anything within that range between those two extremes is seen by a cougar as food. If the cat is hungry, the food gets attacked, killed and eaten.

[MadMike]

We had a deer in our yard a couple of Thanksgivings ago. My wife's sister had arrived and just gotten out of her car, when the thing ran right thru the yard and almost knocked her over.

I think I was the only one who didn't see it.

[mharbourgirl]

Deer tend to be a road problem here too, though mostly in spring and fall. A couple of years ago I witnessed a pretty typical sort of incident. Driving on the hwy to work early one morning, there's a pick-up in front of me and another car well in front of the truck. Deer came flying up the bank onto the road, car hit it. Miraculously, the deer was thrown onto the side of the road instead of its antlers going through the windshield and skewering the driver. Car slowed down briefly but kept going. Pick-up, with an older couple inside, stopped in a hurry. The couple jumped out, checked the deer over (it was very dead), heaved it up into the truck bed and got back in. By the time I passed them they were coming back my way and grinning at each other like they'd scored bigtime.

If you like venison, I guess they had, eh?

Not saying that people eat a lot of roadkill around here (since it's mostly porcupines, who WOULD?), but if you see the animal killed right in front of you, it's probably as safe to eat as if you'd just shot it yourself.

Someday I'm moving back into a city, I swear. I can't take much more 'country living', I tell ya.

[protege]

Pick-up, with an older couple inside, stopped in a hurry. The couple jumped out, checked the deer over (it was very dead), heaved it up into the truck bed and got back in. By the time I passed them they were coming back my way and grinning at each other like they'd scored bigtime.

Uh, did the truck have West Virginia plates?

As much as that state complains about all the jokes (for example, if a WV couple gets divorced, are they still brother and sister?), you'd think they'd do something to help dispel them. For those who don't know, it's actually a state law, that it's *legal* to eat roadkill in WV. I wish I was making that up--it passed in 1998, IIRC. And yes, several Pittsburgh-area radio stations had plenty of fun with that.