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Tuesday, October 30, 2018

Junior

The best way to tell Junior's story is from the very beginning. Right after we moved here full time I was out picking up limbs and a doe came up and I started to talk to her. She had twin fawns in spots and they were playing around for much of the day. A couple years later we noticed a buck (Junior) standing outside the fence looking at us through the window and then at the bird feeder hanging in the back yard.

I went out and he didn't run off or act alarmed so I got an ice cream bucket and went down under the house and put some bird seed in it.  Junior followed me and when I came out he walked right up to me and commenced eating out of the bucket while I held it. Junior officially adopted us that day.

We had a long close relationship with Junior and his friends he would bring to visit that lasted for years. I would rub his nose and scratch his head and he would make small mewing or purring sounds. When my shirt sleeve would get tangled in  his antlers I would tell him to hold still while I got us untangled which he always did. We would spend many days together and I would talk to him and I slowly realized he would understand some of what I was telling him.

During the rut he would go off to court the ladies and come back exhausted. He would stand by the fence like in the photo until I came out and then he would lay down right next to the fence trusting me to look out for him while he slept. I could walk right by him and he would open an eye - see who it was and go immediately back to sleep. We had a level of trust for each other that is rare between a human and wild animal.

There are so many stories about Junior that there wouldn't be room in this blog to tell them all. He stayed around for many years and our trust for each other grew each year. The last time I saw Junior was in his senior years when he brought a rather large herd with him. I walked through the deer and he came to me and we spent a few moments together with the other deer probably wondering what was going on. I don't know what happened to Junior but I miss him terribly. Deer live up to 15 years in the wild and Junior lived all of that.

It is not often that a wild animal will put forth the effort to adopt a human as a friend but he did in my case. We understand that Junior was one of the fawns that hung around those days when I was cleaning up brush. His twin came around for several years but never never developed the intimacy that Junior did. It was a rare friendship that  I am happy to have experienced.

4 comments:

Bea said...

I am so sorry for you. Does not matter if domestic or wild. The loss of our furry friends hurts as much as any loss of a human family member. Sometimes even more so.

Caddie said...

Life CAN be grand, can't it? Also amazing. Loved this memory and will put your blog in 'Favorites' to enjoy more of your postings. Thank you for your sharing.

Unknown said...

What a wonderful story! We live out on the prairie of Colorado in the country (Between Wiggins and Fort Morgan) we also have a mom deer that visits us every spring to show us her offspring. Last year she brought twins. I look for her often and would be just giddy if I had the opportunity that you had. I have several cats that have adopted me. I love reading your stories. Thanks.

Laurie

Ron M. said...

Great story. Great 15 years. Sometimes it takes an animal to get us to see things through their eyes. It changes us.