“There were deer standing right beside the road!” our astonished guests from Germany said. “That could be dangerous.”
“Yes. It can be,” we agreed. “but what can you do in the Natural State? We can’t line the roads with barriers. We have hundreds of acres of woods and miles of forest lined roads.”
They still shook their heads in disbelief. Driving in the woods of Arkansas differed greatly from urbanized Germany.
It also differs from the vast farmlands of northern Indiana where Hubby originated. There we might see deer in the fields after harvesting crops, but rarely do they venture to the roadside.
When we moved to the Parkers Chapel development 45 years ago, we did not see deer so much as plenty of dogs roaming the streets. I suppose the dogs kept the wild animals back in the wooded area. Now that owners keep their dogs at home or inside a fence, I frequently catch a glimpse of deer in the wooded areas around our street.
For instance, last week as I approached the dip in the road over the creek, just around the corner from my house, I saw a doe grazing beside the narrow road. She looked up at my car, turned and hopped into the thicket of trees. She may have thought she was hiding, but I could still see the outline of her shape between the leaves where she stood watching me.
She does not live alone back there and they do not honor property lines. Last year I realized that they roam freely through the neighborhood as darkness descends each night. One evening about dusk, before we turned into our driveway, our headlights briefly swept the backyard. We saw three or four deer lift their heads. Seeing the lights, they abruptly quit eating the fallen paw-paw fruit in our yard, flipped their tails and left. By the time we jumped out of the car for a better look, they had disappeared. Although I have never seen them there since, I also have never seen Hubby gathering a basket of paw-paws before mowing the yard. All the paw-paws mysteriously disappear every year.
Hubby has a unique story about our neighborhood deer. As he neared our house, he had to stop. A nursing doe and its twin fawns stood in the middle of the street. They weren’t standing by the side of the road. They had stopped for a snack. The doe waited for her twins to drink their fill on our quiet street. No other cars came. Hubby quietly reached for his phone to take a picture with the camera app. By the time he flicked the right buttons to open the phone and swiped up to open the camera, the fawns had finished and wandered off. Only the memory card in his mind retains that picture.
One afternoon, he mentioned his extraordinary experience to his friend Mike. Mike tipped his head back at the mention of a doe in the middle of the road. He said, “I saw a doe standing in the middle of the road as it gave birth to its fawn. She dropped it right there on the asphalt. The fawn lay there catching its first breaths as the doe licked it dry. The fawn lifted its head, looked around and pushed its legs to stand. It wobbled unsteadily and collapsed. The doe nudged it until it finally stood and took its first tentative steps. The two disappeared into the woods. Mike went home with his unique sighting of a deer on the road.
Proving yet again that Arkansas truly is The Natural State.