Oh Deer!

My dad's whole life, he didn't believe there were any deer in Kansas. Not sure if urban sprawl is the reason that sightings seem to be more numerous than in times past, but I have had many opportunities to see deer not far from my neighborhood. The spot where I see them most is between 47th Street South and 63rd Street South and between K-15 and Hydraulic, for those of you in our area. Once I did see a couple on the other side of Hydraulic, just a few blocks from our old house. Once I saw a whole herd just off of 63rd Street.

This morning, we had a run-in with a deer, LITERALLY. Well, the deer nearly ran into US! Usually, it is the other way around--a car running into a deer, but in this case, the deer nearly ran into my car! I was driving down 47th Street, near the river, when I saw some lateral movement out of the corner of my eye. First impression was that a large dog was running across the street toward me, but when I turned my head, I was looking directly into the face of a doe! She was just a couple of feet away from me. She sort of stumbled, realizing that she was about to run headlong into me, and for a second, I thought she wasn't going to get stopped in time and my heart skipped a beat. But, she paused long enough for me to pass, then ran behind my car to the other side of the road and into the trees! Odd time to be seeing her too. Usually I have seen them sometime between dusk and early morning, but it was 9am and the sun was fully out and traffic was pretty heavy. At least she made it across safely!