An Interesting Weekend

Saturday we had a friend over to share a barbeque and socialize puppies. After catching up on news and talk, while I finished up cleaning the puppy enclosure and rearranging things so Freya could have a dog cave, we decided to watch Tron Legacy. It had just started to rain and about 10 minutes into the movie, lightning took out the power.

No biggie, we pulled out the hurricane lamps, and just talked and played with puppies. The power was out for over two hours, and I started up the grill. We pulled up chairs in the shed and out of the rain while I prepped the grill and cooked the steaks. We had a great time just chatting.

The power came back on just before the steaks were done and in time to cook and prepare the side dishes. So it worked out pretty good. We ate around the dining room table, and then sat down to watch the movie. We all had a great time.

Sunday I was out doing my chores in the dog yard when I heard some screaming and the roar of a big dog. It sounded as if someone was being attacked, so I dropped the bucket and scraper and ran to help. The screaming died down and did not sound like cries of pain, but my mind was already engaged. Stopping only long enough to pick up a hefty stick, I reoriented and continued on through briars, across barbed wire fences towards the sound calling out to see if the people were ok.

Just over 1/4 mile I came upon a couple of ladies that had been walking their dogs. They said they were ok but their dogs had jumped a deer and they had tried to get them to stop attacking it. The deer got away with some mauling by the dogs across the creek and was resting in a gully. They thought it might be a female birthing. From across the creek I could see it had antlers just budding in velvet, so knew it was more than likely not a birthing female.

I also saw there were patches of fur missing in what looked like older wounds as if it had been dragged on an abrasive surface, so I knew the deer had been wounded prior to the dogs attacking it. I surmised it was probably recovering from being hit by a car or truck and was either still suffering wounds or was sick from infection.

By then my husband came around in the car and he had brought his gun in case. I backtracked to the bridge so that I could get a closer look at the deer, but was unable to get really close before it jumped up and attempted to run from me. Watching it move it was obvious there were no visible broken bones in its legs, though its nose may have suffered some damage from the dogs. It was unable to climb the far bank, but kept trying. Not wanting to overly stress the deer out, I backed off hoping he would bed down again and recover enough to survive. His wounds did not look fatal, though the nose worried me. He may have problems eating. I didn't see him this morning, but will try to track him down tonight to see if he made it, and/or if he can eat. If not, it may be kinder to put him down.