I had big plans for today. I had a lot that I needed to get done. Jon’s birthday is this Saturday and I haven’t done a whole lot. Not that I need to do a lot, GattiTown is doing most of the work.
Everything was going along great, I dropped the kids off at school and was headed back to the house, on the way home I pass Morrison Farms, a horse farm. I always look over there because there’s usually deer or turkey out in the pasture. Only that’s not what I saw today. Instead I saw this:
My heart died a little right then and there. I immediately pulled over and called my friend Stacey. She was dropping off her kiddos at Central Baptist, I told her what I saw and where I was and she said she’d be there in a minute. I got out of my car and walked through mucky yuck (in my flip flops) and slowly approached the deer. He was struggling. My heart broke even more. He had obviously be hit by a car.
I called the Fire Department. They were no help. There was nothing they could do.
I saw the deer put his head down in the water, bubbles blowing from his nose.
I cradled his head in my hand, squatting down in the mud puddle my feet sinking ankle deep in the muck. He didn’t even struggle.
His right leg was obviously broken. He had bloody wounds on him in other spots, but nothing too horrible. But he was on his way out. But I couldn’t leave him there.
Stacey pulled up. She started calling around to see who would help.
A lady stopped and offered to help. Upon seeing me and the deer she started crying. Now there were two crying ladies and a dying deer in a puddle. Awesome.
Several men stopped, one offered to ‘slit its throat and take it home for the meat’. The lady ran him off; I really wish I would have gotten her name; she was very nice and extremely helpful. She ran up to her truck and grabbed some towels. It was then that Stacey called down (we were down in ditch off the road) and told us that a Police Patrolman was on his way. The other lady and I were able to get the deer out of the water and up on dry land; we laid him on his side and covered his head so he wasn’t frightened. He stopped shuddering and struggling.
Finally an Animal Control Officer pulled up. He took a look at the injuries; the bone in the deer’s leg was sticking out about 4 inches. It was bad. He called in and said that a patrolman was indeed needed for a “putdown”. Now the lady with me started crying even harder.
I had been crying on and off and I swiped a tear from my cheek.
“Ma’am, the deer seems to be calmer when you have your hands on him, if possible could you keep your hands on him?”
Really? Really????? Now the deer feels better when I touch him (which is what I hear). So now I start to completely bawl.
A Sherriff pulls up and makes his way down to where we are, at this time the Animal Control Officer says “Ladies, I’ll go ahead and ask y’all to leave. You don’t wanna be here for this. Thank you for your time.”
I called my husband and cried and cried and cried. And he sat on the other end of the phone and let me. He’s awesome like that.
I went home and took the officer's advice and took a shower and washed my clothing in hot water in case I got any ticks on me (and yes, he was covered in ticks and no I really didn't care).
When I got out the shower I grabbed my Tiny, buried my face in her soft fur and told her I loved her.
Now, I'm going back to bed.
