A Bit O' Excitement: Updated

Sheesh. I was leaving to pick up H-Bomb from school. Our dog, Mia, decided she wanted to come with us, so I loaded her up. Number One was getting ready to haul a load of calves to Colorado.

We drove over 1/2 mile down the road, and saw CG's two dogs, Taz and Hank, on the road, just hanging out. I stopped, called them over, tried to load them up. Those two snots just walked away from me, across the road heading away from the house. Of course. Maybe they're home by now, who knows.

Town and school were uneventful.

Then, as I was heading home, approaching Marie's Place, I saw a helicopter flying low behind a ridge. I thought by the time I got around the ridge, it would be headed toward the mountains. Not so. It was still flying very low, and very erratically. I thought it was having engine troubles and getting ready to crash, so we stopped to see what would happen. I thought I could call the sheriff on my cell phone if needed.

The helicopter was bright red, and just kept veering back and forth as it crossed the road in front of us. Then I saw them. Mule deer, running scared, just in front of the helicopter. It became clear that they were chasing the deer with their helicopter. They were still veering and flying so erratically that I thought they would clip a rock with one of the propeller blades. They touched down briefly, then sank beneath a low ridge.

I tried to call the sheriff, but my cell phone battery was dead.

The helicopter rose above the ridge, when I believe they saw my van sitting on the road. They took off, straight and very fast back toward the highway. Clearly they were not having engine troubles. And clearly this sort of activity cannot be legal. I was also concerned because our neighboring rancher has about 30 horses in the same area the deer were being harassed. The horses I saw did not seem to be upset, but who knows how long this would have gone on had I not stopped the van.

I started heading for home again, drove a couple miles further, when what do I see in the road? Our two dogs, Donut and Rico. Over 12 miles from home! I'm positive they were following Number One and the cows to Colorado. "Need any help??"

Thankfully our dogs are trained, and they were tired, so they both loaded up in the van with Mia. Donut (not a small dog) sat on H-Bomb's lap for a minute until I found him a spot on the floor.

We finally made it home, and I emailed the sheriff and the wildlife law enforcement ranger about the helicopter harassing the deer. I didn't have much information to go on, but I'm hopeful. I really haven't seen very many bright red helicopters around these parts.

UPDATE: I heard back from the wildlife law enforcement guy (a friend of ours), who told me that he had made some calls and the helicopter was part of a wildlife capture program. They are capturing deer and putting radio collars on them so they can track their movements around the county. He thanked me for the report, as sometimes people are stupid and chasing wildlife with helicopters (or ATVs, snowmobiles, etc.) IS illegal and dangerous.

Squeals in the Night

Last night we woke up to the strangest sounds. Actually it sounded sort of like a baby giraffe or some other strange animal, squealing. And then there was running around, sounds of hooves and huffing and snorting. Right outside our window.

I had no idea what sort of animal makes those sounds. I did hear one of the dogs running around too, barking. I went to the back door with two flashlights and tried to figure out what the heck was happening out there.

I saw several sets of eyes, moving around. The squeals continued. Some of the eyes bounded away, and I figured out they belonged to mule deer. There was more squealing, and further away was huffing and snorting. I called the dog in the house, and he was panting, out of breath.

One set of eyes was near the ground, I heard the little deer sort of flopping around, not quite able to get up, and squealing. The deer must have gotten trapped in the new corner of fence created when our neighbors moved their garden, joined the fence with the fence on the field and took out the natural pathway from the orchard, where the deer clean up the fallen peaches.

In the distance, I heard the mother deer call softly, similar to a goat's bleating, to her fawn.

I moved away from the door as I saw the mother's eyes coming back. She was still calling to her fawn, and huffing. I'm not sure if the huffs were from running and jumping or just a sort of warning to me and the dogs.

I went back to bed, the squealing stopped, and the dogs settled in for the night on the carpet.

In the morning, there was no dead baby deer behind the house, as I'd feared we would find. It's mother must have gotten it to its feet and guided it out of the yard.

An Unfortunate Deer In A Small Town

This is not the actual deer.

A week or so ago, we went to our house in town and there was a little mule deer in the yard, laying down. It watched us warily, but didn't move. We circled around it completely, checking on our ripening pears, apples, etc. The deer didn't budge or even seem very nervous. Our house is a block from Main Street, so maybe it was used to people?

We should have guessed there was something wrong with it.

On Tuesday, I took H-Bomb to preschool. Sawed-Off and I ran some errands, and then I noticed something in the yard. I thought, oh! it must be that deer, maybe it's asleep. I walked closer, and it was dead, flies a-buzzin' dead. Gross. I knew that if #1 came to town and it was still there, he might feel compelled to take care of it himself. But, being that our house is in a town, I felt like there should be someone on the town payroll to take care of these kinds of things.

I didn't know who to call, so I called the Sheriff's Office. They told me to call The City, it's The City's responsibility.

I called The City. They told me to call the Police.

I called the Police. They told me to call Some Guy. But then they checked with Some Guy while I was on the phone, and he only takes care of roadkill on the highway. They then told me I should call the Dept. of Wildlife guy. Told me the Sheriff has DWR's phone number, which neither one of us could find in the phone book.

I called the Sheriff back. He gave me DWR's office and home numbers, and said if DWR won't do it, call him back and he'll "push some buttons. It's really The City's responsibility."

So, I called DWR at both office and home, left some messages. Went to pick up H-Bomb from school, an hour or so later still hadn't heard back from DWR.

I called the Sheriff again. Told him I hadn't heard from DWR, but I'd really like the dead deer out of my yard. He said he would "make it happen."

The boys and I went for pizza, ran another errand, and guess what? No dead deer in the yard. Finalmente.

I bet The City is real happy with me.