Wildlife In The City

Look closely at the photo and you will see our reclusive visitor. [You may want to click on it to see a larger copy.] We have a creek (or "crick" as they say around here) running through our back yard, and it attracts a lot of wildlife that you wouldn't otherwise expect to find in a suburban neighborhood. The deer is probably out there more often than I notice it, but today it happened to catch my eye as I was sitting at the computer. I was able to get one low-quality picture through the window and screen before my cat came around the corner of the house and the deer took off.

The first time I saw the deer was about a month ago, and the sighting caused me to question my sanity. What happened was, I looked out my back sliding door real quick and caught a glimpse of what looked very much like dappled sunlight on a deer's rump, little white tail and all. I did a doubletake and looked again (after calling for PDM to come look) and I could see nothing. Neither could PDM, who gave me a kind, but skeptical, look. I checked every window facing out towards the back yard (and we have a lot of rear-facing windows) and saw nothing from any vantage point, upstairs or down. I even went outside and looked around by the creek, which is where I saw the rump (or the figment of my imagination). No sign of any deer. So I figured maybe I saw a dog, or just a trick of the sunlight on a tree trunk and my brain filled in the rest. And I started thinking maybe I was a little bit crazy -- seeing things that weren't there. I've been mentally tired and exhausted lately. I seriously wondered if all that studying was beginning to affect my mind. Not a very comfortable thing to ponder...

Then, last week I was doing a few garden chores outside when I heard a strange noise from the back of the house. Zima had come outside with me, so I thought there might be another cat out there challenging her. I went to check it out and found my cat and the deer about ten feet from each other having some sort of cross-species confrontation. The deer was making the noises at her, and she was defending her territory by showing it her scary puffy tail. The deer ran off when it saw me, following the creek bed in the same direction it ran today. I was elated. It meant I was not crazy after all!