Death Came a Knockin’

Our back yard is a glorious landscape of native wildflowers, most of which were planted by Nature Boy. We also back up to a usually dry creek bed, so the view from our deck looks like this:

The combination of the wildflowers, woods and creek makes it a wonderful place for wildlife of all kind. We’ve seen groundhogs, foxes, coyotes, deer, raccoons, owls, hawks, tons of songbirds and other stuff I can’t remember right now.

A couple of weeks ago we had a visit from a mama deer and her two newborn fawns. It’s so adorable to see the little ones with their cute Bambi spots!  We saw the family a few times over the course of a few weeks, but then one day we noticed that the fawns were by themselves. We worried that their mama had died, leaving her orphaned babies to fend for themselves. Thankfully we noticed that the fawns were nibbling grass and what-not from the yard. At least they learned how to feed themselves before mama disappeared.

One day, the two fawns were sitting up in the common ground behind our neighbor’s house. I was determined to try and get up close and personal with them. So, armed with pretzel sticks to lure them with, I slowly approached.

Look little fawns, I have pretzels! Come, let's be friends!

Of course, as I got closer and closer they eventually bolted, off to mesmerize other suspecting neighbors with their cuteness. So much for me being The Deer Whisperer.

But then came The Smell. The unmistakable smell of death. As soon as we stepped outside we could smell it, and it was so pervasive that the whole cul-de-sac was heavy with the stench.

Nature Boy and I decided to investigate. We figured that something was probably dead in the creek bed. We donned our long pants and bug spray and made our way through the high wildflowers of our yard to the creek. I felt like the boys in Stand By Me, going to see a dead body (but we didn’t sing or tell ghost stories or anything fun like that). We trekked one way down the creek and back the other, but didn’t find anything. But we’d occasionally get a whiff of The Smell, and it seemed to be concentrated right around our house.

We climbed back up into the thick of our yard, and as soon as we got up to ground level, The Smell told us that we were very close. After only a few minutes we found her — Mama Deer. We got very close and were surprisingly unfazed by the sight. Very sad, but not disgusted. I won’t go into gory details, but suffice it to say she was in and advanced state of decomposition. We tried to surmise what had happened to her, but her body gave up no clues.

We didn’t know what to do, so we just headed inside and showered all the chiggers off. I got in touch with animal control and the department of conservation, but no one would come out and remove her body. So we’re just planning on letting nature take its course, unless the neighbors complain too much, and then we’ll bury her. Nature Boy said that by winter we’d have a nice clean skull for the boys.  Gross.

Rest in peace, Mama Deer. We’ll keep an eye on your babies.

That was a nice, happy story for a Monday, right? God, what is wrong with me?