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Smoke School Stories

The amazing ironic story of Bambi in the back yard Dec 17 2010

Friday December 17 started like most mornings for me since deer season started November 4. I was up an hour before daylight and brewed a pot of fresh ground Community coffee. I had a few cups, checked my email, took a shower, and headed for the woods. At the crack of dawn I walked out into the back yard past the office and into the woods next to the pasture out back. Most of the leaves from the white oak and red oak trees are now dried brown and crackling on the ground under your feet. The acorns are inviting to the deer. However, the deer have to work hard to get to them. I sat down in a yard chair next to the barbed wire fence that separates the pasture from the 5 houses next to our house. Each house is about 100 yards or more apart. Three other houses line the pasture to my left. It is safe to shoot straight in front of me and to the right because there are no houses and you are shooting up a hillside. The woods are open woods in the 100 yards between the pasture and the houses next to our house. From the yard chair I have a clear view of the woods and the pasture. I was almost hoping that I would not see anything, because a 30-06 gunshot would be alarming to most of the sleeping neighbors this time of morning. All of the land around us that is not private property consists of planted harvestable pine trees. All of this land is leased by hunting clubs and is posted. Gunshots in the neighborhood are common during deer season. But a shot in your backyard would be alarming just at daylight.  I sit in the yard chair for an hour or so listening to the cat squirrels barking and my turkeys, chickens, and ducks waking up.

At 8 AM I decided to get into my red Dodge truck and drive down Highway 557 and LA Hwy 4 to Castor creek and see if I could hear any dog races from the hunting clubs in the area. I have been looking for a club that runs dogs like we did when I was growing up. Dog hunting is my favorite way to hunt. You usually see a lot of deer but you usually miss them. The deer have the advantage. The standers cannot cover all of the escape routes and it is hard to shoot a deer jumping 90 feet a second across a thin logging road. The race and the sounds of the dogs in hot pursuit is exciting. I found an old logging road that crossed Castor Creek. The land on either side of the creek was posted. However the land where the creek crosses the logging road is for sale and is not posted. I may look into buying these 427 acres. I parked over a culvert and sit in my truck for a long time watching the open hardwood timber, white oak, red oak, pin oak, hickory, and cypress trees along the creek. After a while I got out of the truck and sat in the woods in a yard chair. I listened for dogs running, but did not hear any.

My cell phone was beeping when I got back into the truck. I had missed 2 calls from Angie. I tried to return the calls but got the message “Emergency Calls Only”, because I was out of the service area. I decided to drive 30 miles home to see what was up. I missed the calls about the Bambi in the back yard, where I had been hunting at daylight. I got the full story when I got back home.

Our employee, Jason spotted Bambi first. Jason was working around the smoke machine barn when he noticed Bambi eating acorns at the top of the hill. Jason said “Come here deer” and surprisingly Bambi walked up to him. Jason petted the deer. The deer started following Jason around as he worked. After a while Jason and Bambi walked down to the house and later the office so the family and our employees could pet Bambi. Aaron picked up some acorns and cracked them open and Bambi ate them from Aaron’s hands. Bambi walked around the backyard for about an hour and almost went into the house. Deer droppings are near the back door to prove it.

After a while Bambi followed Aaron to the neighbors house next door to the neighbor kids could pet Bambi. Something fell in the shed with a thud and scared Bambi away. She ran into the woods. The neighbor kids said they had heard a story about a hunter nearby who first saw Bambi about a month ago. He saw the deer and started to shoot her, but the deer just kept walking up to him. He put his gun down and started petting the deer. Bambi started following him around. The hunter was concerned that some other hunter may shoot her, so he tied a bright orange collar around the deer’s neck.

When I got home, heard the story and saw the pictures. Then I drove over to the neighbor’s house that is in the pasture. I told the neighbor about Bambi and asked him to make sure nobody shot her. The neighbor said he had been seeing Bambi around the pasture for a month. I hope Bambi comes back today. I would like to figure out how to make her stay and be our pet deer.