Last weekend, I took my daughter to a little get-together with her friends. It was a few towns over to the south of us. The house where we went was up on the hill, a lot like where we live. I waited in the van while she was inside--she wasn't going to be that long.
I listened to some good music from my youth as I waited. If it's not too cold, I'll kill the engine, then as things cool down, I'll fire it up to warm up the car and to make sure the battery doesn't die. It's not likely, but you don't want to have a dead battery out of town on a Friday night.
When I turned on the engine, the headlights turned on, and that's when I saw it--a beautiful four-point buck standing twenty yards directly in front of my van.
I've lived in Utah almost all my life. One thing to remember living here is that wildlife many times come down from the mountains and wander about among humans and their vehicles. Because of this, many animals don't make it back up the mountain. I was parked on a non-busy street, but just below was a street where I think the speed limit was 30 - 35 m.p.h. One of the first blog posts I wrote back in 2011 described how I hit a deer going 40 m.p.h. It did around $5k damage to my car and killed the deer.
That's what was going through my mind when the deer began walking down to the busy (or, more busy...) road.
I flashed my brights, even honked. I don't know if it was because of my actions, but something made the deer change his mind. He turned from the street below and wandered up into the neighborhood. The farther you go up the mountain, speed limits are lower so I think the deer would have a better chance to survive.
As we turned from the neighborhood onto the busy street, I told my daughter about the deer. I felt like I might have done something to help. Then again, the deer could have just gone down to the busier roads a few blocks away. I'll never know for sure. But thinking I might have helped, made me feel good.
No comments:
Post a Comment