Sometimes Ronnie would go to a place where there was a lot of campsites called a campground and talk to other humans sitting around in a circle. He called these things presentations. There was usually a lot of human puppies at these talkings. If it was dark there would be a fire in the middle that Ronnie would stand around. The first time this happened, I barked at the fire like Ronnie had taught me to do, because there was a lot of smoke when the fire started. He gave me a pet and told me to sit and stay. After a little while, I realized that he wanted the fire to be there like the fires he made inside our cabin. To me, it was a fire, it was outside the cabin, and it needed to be barked at and put out, but I trusted Ronnie and let it go.
One night Ronnie talked about the deer in the woods. One of the human puppies had brought a little black female dog that smelled pretty good and I was watching her close, but I still heard what Ronnie said. He said the humans would probably see deer in the woods called mule deer. They were called that because they had long ears that stood up like a mule’s ears. I had seen them and knew that they were pretty animals. They didn’t eat other animals or bother anything that I had seen.
Ronnie told them the males were called bucks and the females were called does. Bucks could be very big. In the time when the leaves change color and the snows begin, the bucks fight over who got to have puppies with the does. They fought pretty hard and some of the bucks were tired and hurt after the fights. Ronnie said some of them were so tired they didn’t live through the cold winter after the fights. The Rangers sometime got calls from humans who said they had seen a sick deer and it was one of these bucks that was struggling to get strong again and live through the winter.
I wondered why having these deer puppies was so important to them that they were willing to fight and die for it. About this time I wondered if the little black female and I had puppies if they would be grey since she was black and I am white. And if they were, would humans think our puppies was wolves and shoot them? And would I be willing to fight other dogs so I could be the one who had puppies with her? This was too many smells at the same time and I got back to listening to Ronnie.
He said the Does could have two puppies at the same time and they were called fawns. The mother hid them in a safe place so she could go eat. They were very little and couldn’t walk or do much for 10 days or so. After that, they could follow their mother around but they had to be careful because lions or coyotes were trying to find them and eat them every day from the very start. They only ate milk from their mother during this time. Ronnie said after 60 days or so they could begin to eat for themselves. Deer eat more than just grass. They eat leaves and twigs from little bushes in the woods which have more good stuff than just grass.
The bucks antlers fall off in the winter but they grow back even bigger and stronger. Ronnie said some humans kill the bucks to get their antlers and hang them up in their houses. He said humans could not kill deer every day but only on some days and that one of the things he did was to be sure they only killed deer on days when they were supposed to. It sounded like humans paid money to other humans called the state to be able to kill the deer. And they got a paper from the state that says they can kill the deer. Ronnie told them that humans who killed a deer had to show him they had the paper. They were in big trouble if they didn’t have the paper, or if they killed a deer on the wrong day. They would have to pay the state a lot of money to keep from going to a human shelter.
A lot of things humans do seems to be about this thing they call money. I’m still trying to figure out what it is and why it smells so good to them. Sounds like humans can do bad things and just give other humans money to keep from getting kicked or bitten even if they deserve it. I’m glad animals don’t have money, whatever it is.
Ronnie said the state humans allowed hunter humans to kill the deer so there wouldn’t be too many deer in the mountains. Sometimes they let them kill mama deer even though they don’t have antlers. I don’t know what they hang up in their houses from a mama deer. Anyway, Ronnie said too many deer in the mountains would be bad for the deer, other animals and humans too. I don’t think they asked the deer about this. I started to worry what if there were too many dogs? Would they kill some of us? And what if there were too many humans? What would happen then? This was all hard for me to track down.
Right after this Ronnie said it wasn’t just lions, coyotes wolves and humans looking for antlers killing deer but humans were killing them with their cars and trucks. He told them this happened lots of times on humans roads. He said this coming together of deer and cars and trucks was almost never good for the deer and sometimes the humans get hurt too. He called these coming togethers accidents. I had been with Ronnie to some of these. He tried to help the deer but most of the time he had to kill them if they were not already dead so they did not suffer and hurt. I could tell he did not like doing this but as I said before Ronnie was strong and good. And sometimes he had to help humans who were hurt in the accidents. I never saw him have to kill any of them. He told the humans around the fire to be careful and not let these deer accidents happen. He said humans should go slower in their cars and trucks when they were near where deer lived. And he said they should have their eyes watching for deer and not be on their cell bones. These cells must be really tasty animals because Ronnie said almost all humans had one of their bones all the time. I can see where if you were eating a bone you might not see a deer and run over it with your truck. All in all, it sounded like a pretty rough life for the deer.
Ronnie said there were not as many deer in the mountains as there used to be. One of the reasons is that humans are cutting down the trees and bushes, building human houses, roads and other human things which doesn’t leave much for the deer to eat or a place for them to live. And in some places there is less rain and snow than there used to be and that hurts all the animals including the deer. I was beginning to feel pretty good about being a dog instead of a deer.
Just as I was getting sad and angry about all this, I looked over at the little black female and she smiled at me. I decided I would fight other dogs to have puppies with her if I had the chance. And I would do my best to make it through the winter even if I was tired and hurt from the fighting. And if I did I would probably fight for her again when the leaves turned yellow.