Worth a Thousand Words?

This pair was out back the other morning.

Kind of cute for a pair of opossums!

*****

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you might recall that I am hell-bent on getting a photo of a fawn. I feel my opportunity for photographing a newborn deer is past. But I do have a story to share...

Last Saturday morning, three of the four of us in our household...and Winston...were up early at 7 am. W usually rises and shines at about 8:15; he's a lazy dog! Well, my DH went out on the back porch to have his coffee and he took W with him. I wandered out too as did our son. My husband was off to race his bicycle soon, that's his stress reliever and hobby, and my son was off to re-take his SAT's. I knew I needed to get W to pee before I drove our son to his testing site so I walked out back without the leash with W. Winston and I have been working on our trust, and we are making great strides in our backyard and the adjacent woods. I feel like he's such a hunter though if we cross the stream behind our place his leash must be on. I guess my trust isn't THAT strong yet.

Well, the walk was going fine. W relieved himself and was sniffing lots all around. He wandered to the edge of my in-laws backyard and I went that way too. On the other side of a monster pine tree, I saw W nudge something and it take off running. IT WAS A SLEEPING FAWN! "Winston, NO!!!!!" I screamed as I ran in their direction. The fawn ran about 100 feet and laid down. W had his nose on the baby's back. As I slowly approached the two animals my husband came running up. Baby deer decided to make another break for it, bleating the whole time! She, or he, sounded just like a little goat kid and I was sure her angry mom would be upon us all! Another 100 feet of running and the baby stopped again. She staying on her feet this time. She had her front legs spread and her head down as she faced us. She almost looked like she was going to charge us herself, but I think she was frozen in fear. W, my DH and I were all just inches from this little one. She was about a 1/3 of the size of W. My DH's voice roused me from my own frozen state as he told me to grab Winston's collar. I just didn't want to move! I wanted to drink in the beauty of this moment. Did I have my camera? NO. Did I have my cellphone (with camera)? NO! I tried very hard to burn this image into my brain. It was a Thousand Words right in front of me. Just for me!

We drug W back home. He was very proud of himself for his morning find. He is a hunting dog after all.

In the past three months I have walked for close to 200 hours with my camera around my neck just hoping for a photo-op with a fawn. Life remains unpredictable.