Deer Hunter

Today was the first of what I hope will be many nice walks up on Green Mountain this fall. I haven't been up there all summer because it's just too hot and buggy - but this morning was so beautiful, and the sky was so blue, and my melancholy mood needed a boost, so I just had to go. Mandy was pretty excited about it, too - so off we went. :)

Everything was pretty uneventful until we were almost at the end of the trail. I didn't have Mandy on her leash at that point and all of a sudden she got startled and started to run off the trail. NO, thank goodness it wasn't a snake!! I couldn't figure out what she was seeing until I looked through the trees and about 20 feet away from me was a deer, staring right at me. The deer didn't move - I didn't move. And Mandy ran back over to me, thankfully. In that moment, I even managed to take a picture, which I am including here to help you understand why I didn't see the deer at first. Somewhere right in the middle of this picture, there is a deer - I promise. You just really can't see it. ha

I thought the deer would run off, but she just stood there and was stamping her foot at me - really. Like, pawing the ground as if she was trying to say, "Back off lady, you're on my turf!" I then quickly tried to get Mandy back on her leash so that she wouldn't chase after the deer. At the same time, I was wondering if the deer was going to come charging at me or something. I know it sounds silly, but you think silly things in these kinds of situations. :) Then something rustled in the brush closer to me and Mandy took off after it - it was the cutest little baby deer! NOW I understood why the Mama deer was stamping her foot at me. She was protecting her baby! Of course, now Mandy was chasing it! I had gotten the leash back on her, only to have her pull so hard that she snapped her collar off... goodness. So, here I am, running after my dog and yelling at her, while she's chasing the baby deer who is being chased by its Mama... Well, something made Mandy stop (me screaming at her maybe? ha) and come back to me and the deer got away. I guess there was never any real danger of Mandy catching up to them, but I didn't want to be wandering the woods looking for my dog!

So that's my animal story for this trip up to Green Mountain - I seem to always have some sort of interesting encounter with animals up there. :) I usually find some sort of spiritual lesson from these encounters and what went through my mind today is how protective that Mama deer was of her baby - to the point that she was ready to take me and my dog on and let us know that she wasn't backing down. Of course, then the baby ran off from her and she had to go and chase it down... it didn't realize that the best place for it to be was right next to its Mama. I think God is so protective of us in the same way. He urges us to stay close to Him and He will fight our battles.

"Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today.... The Lord will fight for you; you need only be still." Ex 14:13-14

The problem is that we run, trusting in ourselves to find a way out of the predicament that we are in, only to find that God is there, chasing us down and taking care of us once again. I'm glad He's so willing to do that... :)

So that was my day on the mountain. Well, there was one more thing that happened. I was winding down the mountain - slowly, because it's steep and pretty scary - and I came upon a policeman in the road. Then I realized that there was a pretty bad accident right around the corner... it looked like a garbage truck had rolled over on one of the curves. It was bad enough to block the road, so I had to turn around and go down the OTHER way over the mountain to go home... so I said a prayer for whoever was involved and made my way home, thankful again for God's protection over me.

OK, so this is somewhat totally off the subject, but can I make one complaint about my dog? You know how most dogs like to 'mark their territory' by peeing on every bush and leaf in sight? Well, MY dog seems to have decided that it's not enough to pee on everything, she has to poop everywhere... I had to pick up after her four times in my little loop around the pond today. It's just wrong to have to clean up that much after your dog... and this is getting to be a regular occurance on walks with her. So I'm trying to figure out how to change that!! ha... (sorry if that was TMI!)