The Ides have come, and the deer are back

So far, I've been up more than two hours (awake for three; can't understand why my internal clock thinks we're sprang two hours ahead instead of one). Nothing bad has happened, and I'm tapping on my wooden desk in hopes that nothing does on this March 15.

Julius Caesar wasn't so lucky when a few of his closest friends gathered around on this day so long ago and made a bloody mess of him. It was unfortunate, and we've been reminded of his demise every year since. Well, at least in my lifetime, we have. Consequently, March 15 makes me nervous.

So far, however, no lions have been walking around the front yard acting like it's no big deal. The deer have, though, and that could be a modern-day omen to some horrible things to come.

And, if the sheer numbers I've seen in the last 24 hours of those sneaky critters, slinking around the perimeter of our yard and several other neighbors' places is any prophetic indication of bad times ahead, we've got problems.

They've arrived much earlier than last year or the year before. Of course, deer are just as smart as humans. They know to go south in the winter and stay put until the Mother Nature's all-clear signal summons them back to their favorite summer homes. And, believe me, the Selle Valley is as endeering to these animals as it is to the humans.

They're savvy on good real estate, especially the kind that has good trees to nibble and gardens to pilfer. And because I don't have seven-foot high fences around the half dozen or so flower beds and garden spots here at the Lovestead, I do have lots of deer----watching and waiting for their moment to visit and veg out on the flowers or the garden produce.

Last night I spotted them while watching the Mark Few Show. While Mark was talking about the past season with his young Zags who'll be playing in Buffalo this Friday against Florida State, I was distracted by some movement in the trees south of the house. I watched the window more intently than the television, and sure enough, the movement continued.

They were slinking through the forest enroute to somewhere, maybe through Kauble's over to Murray's. As I stood up to get a better view out the window, I saw Kea, standing rigid, watching them. She's been told not to chase deer so she was being good at that moment.

I could not make out definite shapes of bodies, just motion, planned and strategic, so as not to be seen. One does not need to see definite shape to recognize deer on the slink. Nonetheless, my suspicions were supported when my eye was drawn to Love Canal to the left of the woods.

A straggler among the crowd had just crossed the canal and was bounding over the fence and trying to catch up with its slinking buddies. How many times have we seen those stragglers?

Seems they're always there when we're driving down a road and suddenly spot a deer racing from one side to the next. Life experience has taught those of us who've witnessed that very scene a thousand times to slow down---cuz the straggler's yet to come.

By the time Mark Few had finished talking about Stephen Gray and what a great game he had against Loyola Marymount when someone or something tore his fingernails off (it was a bloody mess, just like Caesar, according to Coach Few), by that time, the ghostlike movement in the woods ceased. They were probably well on their way through Kauble's place headed for Murray's.

This morning, they were watching me. I was walking out to get the paper in semi darkness when I saw a statue near Gary Finney's south fence. That statue is usually not there, so I knew almost immediately that it was alive.

And, when the movement of the morning stragglers in another part of the field gave it all away, the statue decided to quit watching me, turn about face, flip up that white tail and move on into Gary's woods.

We've got lots of good times ahead now that THEY are back. And, on this Ides of March, I do worry about one very scary possibility: that the same Mama deer who chases people in 4-wheelers and dogs---once she has her fawn in our woods---may have returned with the herd.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see, and for the time being, just enjoy watching the deer or smile as they watch us.

May the Ides of March be good to you.