The beauty of nature :)

Looking at the dates on my last blog, I realize that it’s been forever since I’ve written. For those that were following, I apologize. For those that I wrote this for, you know what’s been going on. I’ll extrapolate at a later date – I hope. This weekend, namely last night, something happened that has not been able to leave my mind. It’s nature, it happens all the time, but it never happens to me. Let me give you a little back-story before I get to the bare bones…

The last time we, Rick and I, came up to the cottage, where I am now as I write this, we arrived in the area at dusk. For the first time in a LONG time, we actually drove up during daylight hours and weren’t arriving after midnight. On the way we saw 4 deer, 2 of them female, a male and a fawn (we think), 2 bears, a fox and a bat. Oh, and a snapping turtle that was crossing the road. I had never been so close to wild animals before and they were beautiful. Yeah, I’ve been to the zoo, but it’s completely different when you’re in your car, and not following the map in order to see them. That evening seemed surreal, almost magical, as if God’s hand was showing me some of his creations. The trees were beautiful, the lakes were like glass, it was so green…. it was gorgeous. I cannot say enough about it. I’ve realized this afternoon that I don’t take enough time to sit and enjoy the outside. I don’t like the bugs, not one to get dirty, I hate sweating… so I stay in and do indoor things. But outside you realize just how beautiful the world is. I went down to the dock today and sat on the bench there and read my book; played with Simon (one of Rick’s sister Angela’s dogs) and just looked. It was too freaking cold to go swimming, so I took the time to just look. And appreciating what I was seeing, I decided I wanted to do the blog today.

You see, seeing the beauty of nature, but being able to touch it first hand, and feel it breath under your fingertips are 2 different things. Last night Dick & Carolynne (they’re Rick’s parents) came home from work late; and Carolynne called up to Rick to come downstairs and help. Rick then called up to me to put the dogs in the bedroom and come downstairs. He said to be very quiet and come in. There on the floor lay a fawn. It had the buds coming up for antlers, so we knew it was a male, and it still had its spots so Dick knew it wasn’t very old. It was in pain. You see, on their way home from work they came across the fawn on the side of the road. It had been hit by a vehicle and left for dead. It was still alive; Dick had gotten out of the car, picked it up and long story slightly shorter, brought it home. When coming in, they laid it on a moving blanket on the floor in the laundry room, where I saw it, with Carolynne standing there and Dick on the phone with Tammy – Rick’s other sister – who’s a vet. We knew it must have been in shock, as it let us pet it, and soothe it and try to comfort it. It was bleeding due to injuries in it’s mouth; one leg had most of the skin torn off around it, like a band, and you could see right down to the bone or the tendon, but mostly, it’s front left leg was completely broken. It was flapping, and a fracture – there were pieces of bone sticking out of the skin. It wasn’t pretty. Through taking to Tammy and arguing between themselves, Dick, Carolynne and Rick tried to split the leg. The deer kept thrashing and it was actually bawling; sounding like a cross between a sheep and a cow. So if you think deer don’t make noise you’re wrong!! I heard it! It was the most distressing sound I heard in my life. At one point when Dick was out to get the splints and Carolynne band-aid’s, Rick and I were comforting it and it stopped breathing. It had stopped probably a good 20 seconds before starting up again…

Eventually the splint has to be re-done and watching it flop around like it that was actually making me sick, so I left. I was just standing there and not doing anything. There wasn’t a lot of space on the floor after you’ve got the three of them and a deer meshed between the furnace, a freezer and the extra fridge. I waited upstairs until they needed me again. After about 10 minutes, maybe 15 they all came up. We were actually worried about what to do with it afterwards, overnight, through the weekend, where it was going to go. It couldn’t be let go in the wild with three legs only… but we didn’t have to worry. While I was waiting, the fawn died. Right there on the laundry room floor. I hope that it realized that it was with people that cared and not just the asshole that hit him in the first place.

I guess it turned out for the best for the deer at least… but I just cannot believe the callousness of some people – to hit an animal and not give a shit. Hey, if we hit a raccoon and we know it’s still alive, we’ll go back and see what we can do – even if it’s to put it out of it’s misery. But in this case… it was just a baby!! I was, and am, so sad for this baby fawn, and so frakking angry at the driver I cannot think straight. If I find out who he/she is, I’ll leave HIM wounded and dying on the side of the road and see if they like how it feels.

Anyway, we’re heading back tomorrow. I’ll see what I can do to write more often – even if it’s just random thoughts… it’s currently 11:59. I’m on dial-up up here, so never know how long it’s going to take me to get there hehe… but I’ll talk to you soon…

Vicky