Sunday, February 15, 2009

Last Wednesday started out to be a very ordinary day. It was pleasant and I decided to go to Macalister Park to do some reading (An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreisser) for one of my book clubs. The park is large enough to be away from traffic noises (except from the airport). I read for about an hour, engrossed in Dreisser's psychological acumen - he was writing in the first quarter of the 20th century). I looked up and there were a couple of deer standing nearby - within 20 feet. Then I looked around and found myself surrounded by them. There were three stags, three does and three fawns of various ages. Theyt were all staring at me. I was briefly a bit nervous as I had just heard a report on NPR (about puma attacks) that many more people are killed by deer than other wild animals. They didn't appear to be hostile so I just sat there absorbing their presence. After a while I returned to my reading and about a half hour later a pick up truck drove up. I put my finger over my lips to warn the driver to be quiet. He got out and rather noisily opened the rear of his truck, sat on the end and proceeded to toss acorns all around. Soon the area was awash in deer; three to four dozen deer appeared from the nearby woods, all very interested in the acorns. So I and the other guy sat for the half hour it took for them to eat up all the acorns. I asked the guy what they preferred and he said "acorns". Mystery solved.