Who didn’t enjoy the story of “Bambi” when growing up? I loved that book and the movie too. Come to think of it, there never seemed to be a shortage of wonderful animal stories and movies when I was a youngster.
I’ve never outgrown my love of animals, and every so often I’ll crack open one of my worn and dog-eared pocketbooks in the series written by British country vet James Herriott about his life’s work with animals, just because it will give me a smile.
I don’t remember if the good doctor treated any deer in his practice, but he was a country vet and so he might have fixed up a few cloven-hoofed critters, besides cows, in his day.
I know I’ve used this photo before in one of my earlier blog posts around deer hunting time. The picture was taken at Algonquin Park in Northern Canada, when I was six years old. I’d probably get just as big of a kick feeding a deer today as I did back in 1962.
On most of my excursions to Council Point Park, I’m sure to find some water fowl, songbirds, a passel of squirrels, even a line of turtles flipping into the water or sunning themselves on a half-submerged log. Then, there are the occasional oddball sightings like gophers, herons and mute swans. Last month I saw a raccoon, but that was a first, and, apparently it was the last time for that raccoon as I’ve not seen it since.
When I first began walking at the Park in 2013, I was speaking with an avid runner named Todd, who told me he had been running at the Park every weekend for over a decade, and he described the wide variety of critters he had glimpsed at that venue, among them a coyote, and a red fox. I told him I’d be sure to always have a camera on hand to capture an image of them. Coyotes and red fox have not appeared yet, but I am hopeful.
The latest unusual critter at or around Council Point Park is a deer. On the local crime reports on Facebook, (which often report accidents as well as crimes), there have been four different deer sightings in and around our city, including down at Council Point Park. Sadly, all four now have a dearly departed status after they appeared out of nowhere, and then sprung across busy Dix Highway and/or Fort Street. There was a deer last Summer near my street, and last week, another one lost its life, just two blocks away. Believe me, I do not live in a rural area, but now have to keep my eyes peeled for deer as I tool along Fort Street while I give the car a run, and also every time I walk. At Council Point Park, while there are an abundance of bushes and trees along the Ecorse Creek, that venue is not what one would define as a densely wooded area. So, I don’t know the reason for all the deer frequenting the Downriver area these days, but hopefully if I see one, it is in a natural setting and not in danger on a busy highway, because that would break my heart for sure. Deer coming out of the woodwork, not the woods, is both a scary and sad situation.
On a lighter note, I’ve wanted to incorporate these photos that my friend Carol posted on her Facebook page back in April, into a blog post, and today I am going to do so. Carol lives in Honeoye Falls, New York and her backyard is on the fringe of a wooded area. She gets lots of woodland critters, including deer.
She looked out her window one day to see one deer eyeing the bird feeder …
… and then, the next minute that deer decided to “go for it” while a “friend” patiently waited its turn in the background. The baffle, designed to keep the squirrels from clambering up the pole to feast on the bird seed, didn’t deter the deer one bit and Carol’s quip accompanying the post was “we have a visitor making herself (?) at home in the back of the yard.”
A little later, Carol took a photo of a deer having a little nap after eating all that bird seed, and commented “there were three more sitting in the shade under the trees between my yard and the neighbor’s.” It might have been delightful the first time Carol saw the deer gathering in her backyard, but after they repeatedly stripped her berry bushes in record time, the beautiful deer in the idyllic setting became a little less enjoyable.
Today, since it was a weekend and there was no reason to scurry home, I would have liked a long, leisurely walk, but five minutes after I set out, it started to rain … likely tomorrow’s walk will also be spoiled by Mother Nature who has now worn out her welcome with the rain.
[Image from WikimediaImages on Pixabay]
Linda Schaub
WALKIN', WRITIN', WIT & WHIMSY 
Miss Linda……………………yes it rained this morning but not very hard……………….hey, I enjoyed Mr. James Harriet’s books on farm animals too……………………….You were a sweet looking 6yr. old girl in that picture…………………………I saw a deer by our apartments too…………….there is a large wooded area all along Reeck Rd. and the railroad…………………..I would have a very heavy heart if I saw a deer lying on Fort St.
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I should have hung in there a little longer Ann Marie – this morning it was supposed to storm and it looks like that might not happen so will try again this morning if it is not raining. I wrote you separately about what happened in the basement yesterday – rain is becoming the bane of my existence. I am hoping to get a walk in today.
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love the post, also, I still have the Bambi poster from when it came out in VCR tapes
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Thank you Noel … I am just a sucker for animals too, as well as those nice animal movies and books that I enjoyed growing up. I’m guessing the kids today are probably not interested in those Disney movies and books. I remember shedding many a tear over “Old Yeller” and “The Red Pony” back in the day and I probably would still be sniffling if I watched those movies today.
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The movies have definitely changed but if you pull out an old classic you will be surprised to find the kids will still enjoy them. I bring out the old vhs tapes once in a while for my grand kids…its funny because they ask me how to work the “old tape machine” (vcr)
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That’s good Noel because I’d be afraid that the real young kids would only like sci-fi or action movies. I’ve actually never used a DVD machine. When my VCR started to have audio issues, I went to Best Buy to get another one and was surprised to find they no longer made just a VCR. This was about 15 years ago. So I got a combo VCR/DVD. Never have used the DVD part of it. I used to tape movies from The Lifetime Channel, but then I cancelled my cable about 8 years ago and have not watched TV or rented movies since – at 61 years old, I’m kind of like a dinosaur. 🙂
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Fun pictures!
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Yes, Carol posted them on Facebook and I couldn’t resist sharing them. She’ll look out in her backyard and see a whole family of deer lounging around back there. She has a tough time keeping the possums, raccoons and skunks at bay because of the feral cats/kittens she shelters … they want to eat their food. She has shelter boxes with hay and heated pads as well as heated dishes for their water and food to use in the Winter.
They are in the corner of her deck at her house so she has a good view of the activity that goes on and her three cats sit at the doorwall or windows and watch the ferals all day long.
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She is a good person.
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Yes she is Kate. I’m going to share this post I wrote about one of Carol’s kittens from a few years back. As a cat lover, you will enjoy it: https://lindaschaubblog.net/2014/11/18/kitten-caboodle/
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Beautiful story. I have something similar but not quite as severe. My husband told me Hazel got out. I was looking at Hazel sleeping on the chair so I went out to investigate and found a very young cat maybe 3 months or younger cowering under a bush. I called and he came running out. I took him in and fed him (and he ate like there was no tomorrow). I kept him segregated and took him to the vet on Monday. By Tuesday, I had an adopter for him. I always regretted that I didn’t keep him because he was so sweet. After he was cleared by the vet, I let him loose and my cats loved him. It did have a happy ending even though I had some regrets.
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That is a nice story Kate. Carol is quite dedicated to these cats and when they are old enough, she traps them and takes them to her vet where she pays to have the feline leukemia tests done on them, as well as their other shots to give them a clean bill of health. She also has them spayed when they are at the vet’s office, all paid by her. Then she either brings them back home or advertises their availability for adoption on a site that deals with only feral cats in the Rochester, New York area. Dewey was so cute and I was surprised she didn’t keep him.
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There are deer all around my area but I’m glad they don’t frequent my yard because they bring deer ticks. They are at my son’s sister in laws and we were sitting up on a deck and two ticks were on my husbands shirt (she feed them). So as nice as they are to look at I don’t like ticks…lol
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Oh I never thought about the deer ticks Diane – you are right. We had a young weatherman about 15-20 years ago, and he went up North for a visit and was bitten by deer tick(s) and developed Lyme Disease. He got very sick and weak and had to resign his position … he was the evening weatherman and a very popular guy – his name was Rob Kress, and his story about his ailment was all over the newspaper/internet … he has never recovered enough to return to his career. We had a lot of mosquito-borne illness and tick problems last Spring when we had a lot of soggy weather and people could not cut their lawn. I totally forgot about the diseases deer carry as well. I’ll admire them from afar. 🙂
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They are nice to look at but I’d be upset if they ate all my flowers and birdseed! Oh, it would be lovely to see some green grass…
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I agree with you Joan. Diane, (from In Diane’s Kitchen) mentioned having deer ticks as a result of having them that close. Carol has two inside cats, but she shelters feral cats all year ’round. In Winter she has wooden shelters with straw and heated pads and heated food/water dishes which she has on her back deck – I must ask her if there have been any incidents of those cats getting tick bites. They chew all kinds of foliage, flowers and berries on her property and you saw them raiding the bird feeder. Yes, nice green grass and no snow would be a blessing, wouldn’t it? I walked this morning – stuck close to home due to the potholes and figured the trails would be icy. I have icy patches on the grass.
Just ran the car up and down the main drag and walked at Council Point Park. Only a handful of walkers and at least the ice had melted on the trail so I got a five-mile walk in … now at 100 miles, but have a long way to go to meet my goal. Going to work on tax stuff this afternoon. I took my camera, but left it zippered up inside my vest, inside my coat – figured all the pics would look the same as last week, but I did see a heron trying to walk on the ice and decided to take photo and when I went to reach for my camera, I spooked him.
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That’s a nice idea – heated pads and water/food dishes. The wind is howling already…..hate wind storms….no walking for me today.
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Every time the Mama feral cat has kittens she takes them to Carol’s house. Carol really outdoes herself taking care of them. In Friday’s post, you can see the one shelter house (it looks like a doghouse) on the porch. She stuffs straw and those heated pads inside and puts the food inside the shelter, so the possums and raccoons don’t come after the food. They often do that. She traps them and takes them to feral cat rescue service when the kittens are old enough – she even pays for the feline distemper shots for them. She has lost a few of the feral kitties, and has paid for their euthanization and brings them home to bury in her yard. That is dedication to a cause. The wind has been howling all day – luckily not lost power and if I had to lose power, it would have been better earlier in the day when it was in the 40s – now the “real feel” is in the teens. I heard a horrible loud noise like something landed on the patio awning and skidded off, maybe into my neighbor’s privacy fence … I did not go out – will do a walk around tomorrow when the wind dies down (a little they said) and check for damage, including shingles off – fingers crossed you and I don’t have to deal with that!
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This post made me sad 😦 I hope the deers that come there now keep living…
and the 15 deer in your friends yard – super duper cool!!!!!!
Love, light and glittter
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Hi Eliza – makes me sad too. There was some highway construction going on and I don’t know if that contributed to the problem or not. I am glad I didn’t see it. There are many car/deer accidents in the Fall in “rutting season” … the deer chase one another and run blindly out into the highway, often paying no attention to vehicles. There are often bad accidents, drivers have been killed, their vehicles totaled and the deer always lose its/their life. They have crashed headfirst into a vehicle – pictures are horrid. I see the hunters return with their bucks during hunting season, their lifeless bodies slung over the hood of their vehicle or in the bed of a pickup truck. Makes me sad as well. It is pretty cool thinking of all the deer in your yard though. 🙂
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That was cute. I follow a blogger in Washington DC and all of her rose bushes have been eaten by deer – so yes, after awhile not so cute. You would think they wouldn’t like the thorns but they seem to. I see you have the same short hair cut I had when I was six, only I had bangs. It must have been in style!
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Thanks Joni – glad you liked it. Carol’s deer are there all the time and and they don’t discriminate and eat any vegetation in sight. And the birdseed. She has a nice house and landscaping which you can’t see in the picture, all chomped on. I don’t see how they don’t injure themselves with the thorns either. My parents used to cut my bangs from the time I had a ponytail all through grade school. They did a terrible job at it too – tape, scissors and string and they had a go at those bangs. I think they would cut them so uneven or short that they decided to let them grow out for a while. There was usually a barrette to pull it out of my face. Carol and some other friends from high school once had a chat on Facebook about our hairstyles we had back in the day – we concluded we all wore headbands, or bows at the side of our head (Rose Marie style) and we all had uneven bangs that our parents cut for us!
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I had horribly short, uneven bangs, but that’s because my mother took us to some French hairdresser back then – maybe it was the style a la Audrey Hepburn? I maybe had a headband, but no bows. My mother wanted us to have short hair as it was no fuss – and she had had long hair as a child and it was a pain to set on rags and brush out. She still has a lot of hair for her age.
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Yes, my mom threatened if I squirmed anymore, I was getting it cut off … so I did. I never thought of that being because of the Audrey Hepburn look – that sure makes sense. My mom used to set my hair on pin curls since it was stick straight. I looked like I stuck my finger into a light bulb. My mom lost a lot of her hair due to her meds. She used to have thick and curly hair but as she got older you would not know it was the same head of hair. I always wished I had my mom’s hair not my fathers which was stick straight and mousy brown.
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Your hair looked curly in that photo you posted of your trip to Scandanavia. Did you perm it in the 80’s like everyone did – I had perms for years, and found them so easy to care for.
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I remember that picture in front of the fountain – no my hair is not curly and the best I can figure … it was not a humid day in the least and I walked out of the hotel and we went there first. 🙂 I’ve had long hair for years and a friend of the family was a hair stylist and she gave me a perm in the last year of high school. I have no idea what this woman did but one side was extremely curly, the other side didn’t “take”. So for the duration of the perm, I had to set one side on orange juice can-sized rollers and the other on tiny curlers. I used sponge curlers for years to curl my hair and it always worked well for me. I did used to use hot curlers after I washed my hair and then sponge curlers when I went to bed. I don’t wash my hair every day as it is dry.
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