Page 17 - Safari Trails December 2017
P. 17

there was no love at all between        stead. My method was ineffec-           not be so different from horses
    me and that deer. At that mo-           tive.                                   after all, besides being twice as
    ment, I hated the thing, and I                 It seems like the deer was       strong and 3 times as evil, be-
    would venture a guess that the          biting and shaking for several          cause the second I turned to run,
    feeling was mutual. Despite the         minutes, but it was likely only         it hit me right in the back of the
    gash in my head and the several         several seconds. I, being smarter       head and knocked me down.
    large knots where I had cleverly        than a deer (though you may be                 Now, when a deer paws at
    arrested the deer's momentum by         questioning that claim by now),         you and knocks you down, it
    bracing my head against various         tricked it. While I kept it busy        does not immediately leave. I
    large rocks as it dragged me            tearing the tendons out of my           suspect it does not recognize that
    across the ground, I could still        right arm, I reached up with my         the danger has passed. What
    think clearly enough to recognize       left hand and pulled that rope          they do instead is paw your back
    that there was a small chance           loose. That was when I got my           and jump up and down on you
    that I shared some tiny amount of       final lesson in deer behavior for       while you are laying there crying
    responsibility for the situation we     the day.                                like a little girl and covering your
    were in.                                                                        head.
                                                   Deer will strike at you with
           I didn't want the deer to        their front feet. They rear right up           I finally managed to crawl
    have to suffer a slow death, so I       on their back feet and strike right     under the truck and the deer went
    managed to get it lined back up in      about head and shoulder level,          away. So now I know why when
    between my truck and the feeder         and their hooves are surprisingly       people go deer hunting they bring
    - a little trap I had set before        sharp... I learned a long time ago      a bow or rifle with a scope......to
    hand...kind of like a squeeze           that, when an animal -like a horse      sort of even the odds!!
    chute. I got it to back in there and    --strikes at you with their hooves      All these events are true so help
    I started moving up so I could get      and you can't get away easily,          me God ... An Educated Farmer.
    my rope back.                           the best thing to do is try to make
                                            a loud noise and make an ag-
            Did you know that deer
    bite? They do! I never in a million     gressive move towards the ani-
    years would have thought that a         mal. This will usually cause them
    deer would bite some-                                        to back down
    body, so I was very            I hated the thing,              a bit so you

    surprised when ..... I                                         can es-
    reached up there to          and I would venture               cape.
    grab that rope and the                                                T  h  i  s
    deer grabbed hold of         a guess that the feel‐            was not a
    my wrist. Now, when a           ing was mutual.                horse. This
    deer bites you, it is not                                      was a deer,
    like being bit by a horse                                      so obvious-
    where they just bite you and slide      ly, such trickery would not work.
    off to then let go. A deer bites you    In the course of a millisecond, I
    and shakes its head--almost like        devised a different strategy. I
    a pit bull. They bite HARD and it       screamed like a woman and tried
    hurts.                                  to turn and run. The reason I had
    The proper thing to do when a           always been told NOT to try to
    deer bites you is probably to           turn and run from a horse that
    freeze and draw back slowly. I          paws at you is that there is a
    tried screaming and shaking in-         good chance that it will hit you in
                                            the back of the head. Deer may                             Page 17
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