My favourite part about living out here in the country is all of the wildlife I see.

This past weekend, as we were on our way to check out some potential living spaces, we were immediately stopped. Crossing in front of us was a mama doe with her twin fawns. They just stopped and stared, and we replied in kind. I whispered to Little Man, “There is a deer family in front of us!” and he was just so excited! He’s too little to really see anything when we pass (you’ve got to love today’s astronaut car seats), but once we started driving again, his head was turning all around trying to see the deer.

We see a lot of deer: in the backyard, crossing the street, along the trails, in the fields; they are everywhere. We’ve seen a few foxes, bald eagles, and so many different types of birds (crows, cardinals, robins, bluejays, etc.). It has been a while, but we have coyotes up here as well. While we may not see them, we do hear them quite often. On our drives into town, we drive past farms (a lot of farms) with horses, sheep, goats, pigs, chickens, cows, donkeys, and one even has a zebra! Little Man is always hearing, “There is a pig, the pig goes ‘oink!’” and we do the same with all the animals. This kid is going to be great with Old McDonald’s Farm.

Last night, while washing up after dinner, I looked out the window over the sink and went “Crud.” The angle I was looking at, it appeared that we lost a tree during the storm earlier in the day. All I could see was the light orange-ish brown that our trees are on the inside. I moved to the side a bit, and realized I was wrong. I was looking at a gorgeous doe behind that tree. I turned and motioned to Squatch, whispering “deer” while I pointed out the window. He tiptoed over to the other window and just watched the deer. Little Man knew something was up, and crept over to the window, pulling himself up onto his tiptoes on the vent to peek out. Squatch knelt down and whispered “Do you see the deer eating her dinner?”

At that point, she stopped what she was doing, her ears twitched, and she looked right at me. I lost all sense of what else was going on as I stared back at her. Now, she was not right outside the window; she was at least 100-150 away, at the edge of the property. I could feel her eyes on me as we just stared at each other in silence. She suddenly turned her head towards the back of the house, pulling me out of my dream. I looked to my left, and saw Squatch had just walked into the three seasons room with Little Man. They were quiet as could be, yet she heard them move through the doorway. As I looked back out, she again turned to look at me, and went back to eating her dinner. She started walking as she grazed; heading towards the road. There, she stopped, and looked down the street, ears perked up, nose twitching. I could faintly make out the sound of a car or truck coming our way, before it turned down a different lane. My friend relaxed a bit, turned once more to me, and snuck into the brush; meal eaten, danger gone, and ready to settle down for the night.

In the past 11 years of my parents owning this house, I have seen so many animals make their way through the yard. Never before have I felt like I made a connection like I did with this deer. I hope she makes it through the fall and the deer cull, and in the spring we meet again, this time with her babies in tow.