“Toto, I’ve got a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.” 
― Dorothy from the Wizard Of Oz

 

As you can imagine when you live on five acres in the mountains you experience a lot of wildlife.  One of the most prominent members of that wildlife group is a family of deer that come to “visit” two or three times a day.  The previous owner of the property put out food for the deer a couple of times a day to mitigate them eating the flowers and shrubs from the garden adjacent to the back patio area.  We’ve maintained that practice for the same reason and, for us suburbanites, it’s very cool to have deer in your “backyard”.

Although technically illegal to feed the deer the mix we provide is healthy and not enough to make them dependent on only this “snack” they get a couple of times a day.

The deer are relatively calm but we respect the fact that they are wild and although we can get within 20 or 30 feet of them as we go about our business if they are near we don’t push that limit and we don’t let the dogs out if the deer are present.

Sometime in the first week Kali spied one of the deer through the door in the back side of the house.  I wasn’t surprised she barked.  After all there was a wild animal threatening her new homestead.  She was doing her job, right?  And then it was very cute how little Kloe, who could have cared less about a 250 pound buck foraging less than 30 feet from the back door, chimed with a woof as if to say, “yeah – what my big sister said”.

The dogs still send out an occasional message through the windows to the deer and the deer simply stare back into the house as if to say, “feed me”.

And this is our new way of life at the Golden K with dogs and deer and co-existance with nature.