It Came Out Of The Fog

Here it is! This the the mysterious animal that most of you guessed yesterday in the game. Yes, it is a White-Tailed Deer. I told you yesterday that it came after me, and that's exactly what it did. I'm going to tell you the story of how that happened, and I also have something new for you at the end of the post. Let's start!

On the foggy day I've been telling you about, I was walking from the lake up the path toward the meadow where I frequently see deer. About halfway through the path I met a man with his dog. The man told me that he had see a few deer in that meadow, but they had scattered when they saw him and his companion.

Obviously I was not happy at that point because I had hoped to be able to see a deer or two myself when I got there. I figured the deer wouldn't be coming out any time soon after seeing that pair. So I made my way to the meadow with thoughts of just getting a few scenery pictures of that foggy place. It was soon after I got there that I saw the flashes of a deer's tail that I showed you in yesterday's game!

The deer soon disappeared into the trees, so I began taking my scenery pictures. Let me tell you, it was not easy to see out there at all! My camera was able to cut through the fog much better than my eyes could. I had just turned towards the trees where I last saw the deer when I saw a figure coming towards me out of the fog!

It was one of the deer! It was moving purposefully in my direction. I knew by its body language that it had seen me, and was coming to investigate. It was moving right for me so I stopped so it wouldn't run away. It was then that I noticed that it was thinking of coming right up to me!

I wasn't sure what to do by then because it didn't seem like it was being aggressive, but it was moving with a purpose. It kept looking at me as if it really wanted to find out what I was and what I was doing there. I guess it was much like I do to a lot of animals. This was another deer that was not one bit afraid of me!

I was kind of glad when it stopped about ten feet away. It began lifting its head in my direction sniffing the air. I learned a long time ago to mimic the gestures of a deer, so I did the same thing to it. That seemed to rouse its curiosity even more and it took another few steps forward. There was also one other thing I wanted to try.

When it inched towards me I turned as if I was going to run away. That seemed to embolden the deer. It still moved cautiously, but it came even closer to me when I did that. My fake show of fear made the deer actually seem to try to coax me back towards it though. It was trying to show me that it meant no harm. This was one of the strangest animal encounters I've ever had!

This deer was trying to get me to come closer for some odd reason, but I wasn't going to try it. Just as the deer didn't want to scare me, I also didn't want to scare it. I also didn't want to accidentally teach it that humans were safe to approach. I'm not sure it saw me as a human though.

Just for a short break in the story, I wanted to show you this picture. It was one where the deer had been moving towards me. It's looking right at me. I really sensed no aggression on its part, but I did sense intense curiosity. It also showed an amazing amount of tenderness when it thought I had become afraid.

Now I know I implied yesterday that I thought I was in some danger. Well, I think at one point I really was, but not from this deer. In this last picture you can see that she is looking off into the distance. She was look towards a sound at the edge of the forest that we could both hear.

That sound was something that I've only heard on nature TV shows. It sounded like a male deer sharpening its antlers on a tree. It was kind of a clacking sound, and it was much too close for comfort. That sound means that the male deer is thinking very aggressively, and it's best to stay out of his way.

I thought I had seen movement through the fog in that direction before those sounds began, and the female here in front of me seemed to be checking out the sounds, but she wasn't too afraid. She did begin to slowly move away from me after they started though. That was when I thought I should get out of the meadow and leave these deer in peace. It was only the third time now that I've left an animal before it left me.

As you can see, I have added a video to my post today. It's the very first one I have ever put here on this blog. I guess you can say that this is the debut of Rat TV. This video is only really a quick slide show of the deer in the pictures. I wanted to give you some idea of what I saw when the deer came to me.

I came up with this idea after I remembered that I should have captured a video of the whole incident. I wish this could have been better, but I was torn between watching the deer and taking pictures when this all happened. I hope you enjoy it. There will be more and better videos in the future.

That's all for this huge post. Tomorrow I'll bring more pictures of the deer because I have a few more points to make here. There's still some interesting things to tell about this encounter, but tomorrow I'll try to keep it a  little shorter for you. See you then!