Sad, strange and true.

This is not going to be an uplifting entry but it happened yesterday so I'd like to write it while fresh and perhaps to get it out of my head.

Tuesday was Vets Day - THANKS TO ALL OF YOU EVERYWHERE; ESPECIALLY MY DAD! - so I was home and able to walk the dogs early. They are always snuffling about in the grass and sometimes they come back smelling pretty bad!

This morn we crested a small rise in our pasture and they stopped in their tracks. I began looking for what might have spooked them and quickly saw a large deer just ahead and to my left - maybe 25 feet away. It only took a quick second to realize this buck was not going anywhere.

Somehow the poor fellow had impaled himself on a t-post. (For you non-farmers, a t-post is a steel fence post formed in the shape of a "t") All I can figure is he was jumping the fence in the dark and didn't quite make it over and came down on the post. I found him hanging their - quite dead of course.

The dogs of course were curious so it took some coaxing to get them to move on. I was in a hurry so couldn't do anything about him at that moment.

Later in the day I removed him from the post so he wouldn't have to hang there forever. He was an 8-point buck and I guess weighed maybe 125 pounds or more. A pretty big guy - at least he felt like it trying to move him around. We sort of have an animal graveyard off the beaten path so I drug him there. We long ago gave up digging holes to bury all our dead animals. When you raise them, death happens and you have to handle it in the most efficient way possible.