xtcian

capreolinae communion

12/28/09

Tonight, as the wind howled up and over our hill, I took our little dog Lily out for her end-of-day business. She kept being distracted by something in the black distance, however, so I put her in the house and ventured back out into the icy night.

I trained my eyes on where Lily was looking, and after a few minutes, I could start to make out a shadow in the distance. I pulled out my camera, still on the "raw" setting, and snapped a few pictures in the hope that something would come of it. And this is exactly what I saw:

I wasn't sure if it was an elk or a VW Microbus, but it was something bizarrely large and it didn't seem to be afraid of me one bit. I ventured a little further up the hill, right to the split-rail fence, and took another picture as I heard it move:

And that's when I realized it was the most massive white-tailed deer buck I've ever seen. It had to be almost as tall as me, and it moved so close I could hear it breathe. I was going to take another picture, but I couldn't manipulate the flash at 19 degrees F with no gloves, and besides, I dunno, it seemed rude.

We stood a few yards apart, taking stock of the other, as the night got blacker and colder. After a minute or two, we both decided we needed to get on with our business, and we slowly backed away and went off to tend our families.