Doe, a deer!

Today, I went to pick Jennifer up at her bus stop. Had plans to also take her over to KidSports and sign her up for baseball. So I'm driving to the bus stop...just peacefully driving...when alarm floods through me and I hit the brakes, not believing what my eyes see.

There, walking along the street, is a deer! A young female deer! I could tell it was a female because I looked to the other side of the street and...there's another deer! This one was obviously male; larger and with an aggressive look in his eyes. He did not have horns yet, though.

Two deer on either side of the road. Yikes.

I kept staring at the female. I couldn't believe what I was seeing! A REAL DEER ON THE STREET! A city street! Now, this, I would expect to see in Blue River or even Lake Arrowhead. But not here in a Eugene neighborhood. I kept thinking my eyes were playing tricks on me, but there was no mistaking it. Two REAL deer were on either side of the road! They were walking at first then they stopped to stare at me. And I was...staring at them. It was eerie.

It reminded me of the time I lived in the California desert. I was driving to my mom's house one day and going along this dirt road. I couldn't make out what I saw ahead of me at first, as I brought my Jeep to a slow drive, then I slammed on the brakes when I realized that a team of horses was charging right at me. Right where I was sitting! In the car! Gah! I know I should've gotten out of the car, in case one of them ran over it (would they have crushed it??), but I just sat there, in shock, my heart pounding against my chest as the horses broke form and ran around the Jeep. One of those horses looked right at me. Just made eye contact...like I made with that deer right now.

Then I snapped out of my stare and looked ahead. Jennifer was running up to the deer! Alarmed, I cried out to her, "No! Stay there!"

This frightened the deer and she ran off. The other one just resumed walking down the street.

When Jennifer got into the car, we shared our surprise, wonder and shock over what we had seen! WOW! Two deer on the street! (And, unfortunately, in a person's backyard, as the female ended up walking into the backyard of a nearby house. I started to feel sorry for the person who lived there, to look out the window to view their backyard and see a deer standing there!) There were other kids who had gotten off of the bus hanging out and staring at the deer. One girl told us that the deer belonged to people living in a house right on the side of the road. I started to grit my teeth and mentally curse people keeping wild animals as pets (they should be free, darn it!), but I also hoped the deer would be taken back home or something before causing an accident or getting hit by a car. I so really hope that neither of them would be hit by a car.

As I started to drive away, I told Jennifer that was quite an experience. Usually, you see one deer on the road, but TWO! Wow, that was pretty exciting. My heart was pounding in my chest from the excitement and I told Jennifer I was still unable to believe it. She, too, thought it was pretty awesome. I laughed and announced, "Only in Oregon!"