Busted

Yesterday evening, near the end of my final piano lesson of the day, my student, who was facing the window, suddenly got all wide-eyed and distracted. 'There's a deer in your yard!' she finally exclaimed. 'What?!!!!!!!' I turned and looked, and there, standing not 10 feet away from me on the other side of the glass door, marching boldly across the patio towards the previously sampled squash patch, was Bambi Junior. I rushed out the back door and chased him out of the yard. Yes, there he went, galloping through that narrow gap between the car and the house. (I had moved the ladder so my students could get to the door.)

Not 15 minutes later, my teaching finished for the day, I looked out the window on the other side of the house, and there he was again, now standing calmly in the middle of my vegetable garden, munching on my bean vines. I ran outside again, this time with camera in hand. Thus the fuzzy quality of the photos: I clicked with one hand and brandished a broom with the other. He looked only mildly alarmed, perhaps just surprised to see me back again so soon.


Here he looks downright disapproving. 'Lady, what's the problem here?'



but did make a pretty fast move towards the exit once I got out of the way. I clicked wildly as he ran past,


The sound of his wee deerish hoofbeats on the pavement made me think briefly of Rudolph ...... but then I remembered Rudolph was a reindeer and their feet make a different sound. With great satisfaction I watched him heading up the street, perhaps to sample the delights of my neighbors' yards. Not that I wish them ill, but they're on their own with this guy.



I wonder if I could train the girls to be Attack Chickens ........