By Barbara Jorgen Nance
Why can't deer just put on their PJs at night and lounge around like the rest of us do? But, no. They insist on running around in the dark and crashing into our cars and trucks. That is exactly what happened to us.
In my last column we were off to Oregon to help my Mom, as she can no longer live alone. We were planning on taking our big, King Cab Ford truck, all three dogs, tools, weedeater, etc., to work around the property and prepare Mom's house for sale. Well, a large deer changed all those plans. My husband, Sherwood, and his friend were coming home one eve from Arizona and had just passed the Wrangler on 180, when something big crashed into the driver's side of truck. They didn't know what hit them at first, as the driver's side window imploded covering them in glass shards. They first thought someone was shooting at them. The police came and made a report of the incident. There was plenty of deer fur evidence imbedded in the side of the truck and the poor, dead deer was lying in the road.
A day or so later, our good friend Bob had a similar accident happen to his truck coming home from Lordsburg after dark. A big buck ran into the front of his truck. Bob is going to need serious repair work done to his vehicle as well. As Bob stood in the middle of the road estimating the damage to his truck, a second car came over the knoll and hit the same deer. Now, a second vehicle was disabled. At that time, two guys stopped and told Bob they wanted the deer's antlers. As Bob was standing up for the deer's rights, a third car came over the knoll and ran into the same deer again! This time it shattered the deer's antlers, sending pieces everywhere. Bob likened it to shrapnel. Oh, deer! Needless to say, the two hunters had no use for antler shrapnel fragments, so they left the scene. I'm sure our deer stories aren't the only ones out there. Be cautious if you need to drive at night.
Well, we did make it to Mom's house in Oregon after two long days driving in my car. Not a lot of room, but our three dogs made the trip with us. We met up with my sister Nancy and got done what we could do, in between rainy spells. Mom's house is now on the market and she's adjusting to her new foster care home. At 93 years old, she's no longer driving, and she never ran into a deer or vice versa.