Miracle in the Woods...

When I first moved to Central Texas, I couldn't get over the deer. They were everywhere! I saw them in town, once in the parking lot of my school. I saw them in neighborhoods sitting around like dogs in people's yards. I'd stop my car to look at them, it was fascinating to me. I didn't think I'd ever get over it....and then I tried to landscape a yard in the heart of deer country.

If you've read any of my blogs, you know that I have managed to get over my deer fascination. They have the nerve to come into my yard (which I guess was really their yard before I got here) and munch on my plants way too often. They've eaten a peach tree, a fig tree, some mums, lots of basil, and lately they've munched my dahlias down only to find out they didn't like them...and spit them out! They have been enemy #1 of my efforts to turn this place into the Hill Country version of Martha's Turkey Hill. (I cannot even write that without seeing my husband rolling his eyes at me).

Anyway, it's all been so frustrating to me that we've decided to spend a boatload of money on deer fencing. The fencing is coming, but in the meantime I have been trying to find ways to salvage my dahlias. I bought some of that "liquid fence" to spray on the remainder of them and it smells so foul that I can barely stand to be outside after I've sprayed.

But today, just for a little while, they redeemed themselves as I witnessed a little deer miracle in the woods. When I got home from work this afternoon, I saw something moving under an old cedar tree outside of my kitchen. Out here, that could be anything. I've seen foxes, wild turkeys, armadillos, and your run-of-the-mill racoons, possums and squirrels. But this looked different.

It took me a minute to focus, but then I realized it was a doe licking her two brand new fawns clean! I couldn't believe she had them so close to the house! I've been wondering how the bird feeders have been emptied so quickly, and why there was no water in the saucer I keep out there for them. She set up camp for a couple of days. When I first saw them, they couldn't stand and were dark and wet. Within a half-hour or so, they were wearing fresh spots and standing on their own thin, wobbly legs, just like Bambi. They are much smaller in person than they look on the pictures.

I realize the pictures are poor quality, but I didn't want to get too close and scare them. If you click on them, they will enlarge. I wish my dad was around to see this, he would have loved it. What a blessing it is to live in the country!