Tragedy on the road

Sunday was a busy day for us. I had volunteered to sell coffee and lottery tickets for the local Chamber of Commerce at the town fair. The weather was beautiful and sunny, so . It was very hectic, and even though we were two people at the booth, we couldn't keep up. One person was often off buying more or something, and we had the world's slowest coffee maker. To make matters worse, the filters were the wrong size so the grounds escaped, and it didn't turn off when you removed the pot, so one person had to hold a cup to catch the drips while the other poured coffee. We were directly across from the stage where a reggae band was performing, so we couldn't here what people were ordering or ourselves think. After two hours, I was totally exhausted.

I had exactly 7 minutes to look around the fair, but when I wanted to get something, I realized I didn't have enough cash left after the morning's visit by the ice-cream truck. I didn't have time to run to the ATM, so I just ran back to the car where my husband and daughter were waiting.

We were on our way to look at a new car. My husband had very specific ideas about which car we should get so I would have something to drive in the winter which wouldn't get stuck in the snow all the time, and there were very few for sale in the entire country. We'd looked at a couple, but they were very rusty. My husband was ready to drive over 3 hours to look at one last week, but it sold too fast. This one was less than an hour away. I had a headache and a sore throat (on top of the cold I've had for the past several days), so I was looking forward to a relaxing car ride.

We were driving through the forest about half way there, when a fallow deer bolted into the car in front of us. I saw the whole thing, and it didn't feel like slow motion. The woman who was driving didn't have a chance to avoid it. It was so close that if she'd had enough time to hit the breaks (which she didn't) the deer would have hit the side of her car. The poor creature's neck was probably broken immediately, but seeing it tumble and roll quite some distance along the side of the road, I knew there was no hope for it. We both pulled over immediately.

My first reaction was to call our good friend who hunts in and takes care of our forest. He was also a hunter for the county, so he'd know what to do, and he lives nearby. He'd also would know what to do with the venison. Unfortunately, he was busy, so he told us to call the police. A police report would probably be necessary for the driver's insurance to cover the damage from the accident. The people in the other car were quite shaken up, so they were appreciative of our help. Two more cars stopped, both probably wanting the venison. They both left when they heard we'd called the police.

The worst thing was that my daughter was in the car. I don't know how much she saw, but she did get out and look at the dead deer. She was really sad and cried several times. The worst thing was that this deer was a mother. Her youngster almost followed her onto the road, but it turned in time and disappeared into the forest. We could see that she'd still been nursing, and there was no way that the orphan could survive the winter.

If the system was working correctly, the police would figure out who had the hunting rights for the forest from which the deer had run, and contact them. They if they chose not to collect the dead deer and hunt down the orphan, the county hunter should be contacted to take care of it.

We ended up buying the car, so we drove by the same place on Monday night. The carcass was still there and beginning to bloat. What a terrible waste of venison. And somewhere out there, there's a very lonely little deer.