little deer friend

Friday afternoon, as the sun was getting low in the sky, I spotted a little lone deer walking from our backyard to the front. He went into the trees just a bit, picked out a spot under a fallen tree and shuffled some of the snow around there with his hooves. Then he plopped himself down for a long winter's nap. It was so sweet. Hub came home from work later and the little deer was still there, even as he walked by him to go bring in the mail.

We've seen deer spend an afternoon laying down in our woods on occasion, but never so close to the house. And the odd thing about this deer is that since Friday night, he has come back every single night to this same exact spot. Saturday night. Sunday night. And this morning we awoke to find him still curled up out there. I looked out the window a little while later to see him up and moving about, eating some nearby red twig dogwood branches. Soon after, as I was pulling out of the driveway, I looked over at him to see him kicking more snow around (we'd received some fresh snow during the night) and sprucing up his little spot, totally oblivious to me sitting in my car watching him. Then he bent his legs and eased himself back down into his spot. When I came home later that morning, he was gone. Nowhere in sight. And I didn't see him at all the rest of the day. I thought perhaps our little weekend visitor was gone for good after this.

But after a late dinner tonight, we peered out the front window into the darkness, Hub holding a flashlight...and guess what it illuminated? Yep, the outline of one little furry brown figure...back for the night.