Late this morning I looked out my window and saw a deer in my back yard. That's a pretty common occurrence; a couple of years ago my whole vegetable garden got eaten by deer. (I've been loath to replant ever since)
But this morning was different: this deer, I was soon to discover, had an arrow sticking out of its shoulder. It looked like it had been there for a while. It took me about 10 minutes of thumbing through the phone book and trying different numbers (all with very pleasant and unhelpful recorded messages, but no real human beings) that I finally broke down and called 911. (is a deer with an arrow an emergency?) The very nice 911 lady listened, sympathized with my inability to contact anyone on a Sunday, and said they'd send someone out.
Fice minutes later, I got a call from a Fish and Wildlife worker. He said that if it was a baby deer, they could help, but more often than not tranquilizing an adult deer kills it, so they couldn't do anything and we should just hope that the deer manages to get the arrow out on its own.
Five minutes later, he calls back and says that he'd just talked to his partner and they decided that if the deer is still there, they should come out and try to tranquilize it and get the arrow out. I look in my backyard and can't see it anymore. So I take his phone number, and tell himt hat I'll call him back if I see it again.
Ten minutes later, a police officer shows up at my door -- turns out the nice 911 lady called for a police officer too. Which has the negative side effect that a local TV station heard the call on the police radio and sent out a guy to check it out. So now I have a very nice and helpful police officer, and a nosy reporter out in front of my house.
I give the officer the run-down and show him the picture I took of the deer, he calls the fish and wildlife guy, and he decides to see if he can track the deer through my backyard (which, embarrasingly enough, is a tangle of wild blackberry brambles). He disappears into thebrush and reappears in front of my house about 5 minutes later. It turns out he tracked it through my backyard, over the fence and through my neighbors' yard. Sweat is pouring down his face. Great comment: "the bulletproof vest protects you from the blackberries, but it sure is hot!"
In the end, he couldn't find the deer either. So he asked me to email the picture to him, and gave me his card to call if it shows up again. So I'm keeping an eye out for it...
10:28:22 PM  ; ;
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