This week a chance encounter with two young male deer who dropped by to sample the buffet of apples and hosta on either side of my driveway caused my thoughts to meander about what enabled them to do that.
To set the scene, here’s the old apple tree in front of my house. While it looks like its left side is smoldering, that’s the smoke coming from the chimney that 40-degree morning.
The apple part of the buffet is to the left of the driveway
although sometimes the deer (and other critters) carry the apples to the lawn to eat them.
Normally, the deer sheer the hosta beginning with the plants furthest from the house and systematically munching their way to those growing near the cellar door. But for some reason this year a plant was skipped. (Note the sheered plant on the extreme left below.)
Perhaps the overlooked plant, which is minus a few leaves, didn’t taste right. Or maybe there were two deer at the salad bar that day.
The other part of this encounter was the sad realization that it wouldn’t be too long until the deer would create problems of one sort or another for people. And as soon as that happened, someone would start talking about transporting them to a new environment unmindful of all the generations of genomic changes and maternal teaching that enabled those animals to survive and thrive here. As if all deer or animals of any species living in different locations were alike, like identical toasters coming off an assembly line. I hope I’m gone before that happens.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More