Flashback #4- The Wildlife Just Looks Innocent, May, 2009

Believe it or not, myself and my chihuahuas were chased down by a deer. I thought we were going to be seriously injured, but escaped intact. I know you may think I'm being a drama queen, but I am telling the truth. I never thought a deer could be in the least aggressive. I thought they were shy and always run away. We were in Montana, and I decided to go for a nice long walk out in the country down a quiet, deserted road. We had gotten fairly far and Mooshie was off his leash running around when we came towards the top of a large hill, and I saw a deer watching us from a distance. I grabbed Mooshie and put him on his leash so as not to scare the deer, and was thinking how nice it was to be out away from the city where you could actually see wildlife. He never moved as we passed and headed down the hill, so once we were out of sight I let Mooshie off to go play again. He ran out into the field to check out the prairie dog holes, while Plushy stayed right by my feet, like she always does. As he got farther from me, I noticed the deer had come to the top of the hill, and was looking down at Mooshie, and I wondered if he was curious, or maybe just making sure we were leaving. But then he took a few steps towards Mooshie and was watching him intently, although Mooshie had not noticed him yet. I began to get worried and called Mooshie's name. He stopped and looked up at me, and at that moment the deer went dashing down the hill straight for him. I panicked and started screaming, "Mooshie, come!" He then saw the deer and started towards me, but was looking over his shoulder at the approaching deer and therefore not moving quick enough. The deer caught up to him and ran right down on top of him, trying to trample him with his hooves, but Mooshie is small and fast, and zig zagged, so the deer missed. By this time I am screaming at him "Come Mooshie!!! Hurry baby, faster!" and he was now running straight for me with all he's got, while the deer ran repeatedly over top of him, trying to trample him. Mooshie was so scared and zig zagged all the way to me, dodging the flying hooves, and I ran towards him with my arms outstretched, scooping him up at the last minute and cradling him in my arms. I thought the deer would never come near me, but as I held Mooshie, the deer stopped abruptly only about 4 feet from me and reared up on his hind legs, striking out at us with his front feet. Still thinking the deer would be scared of me, and being upset over the close call my poor puppy just had, I rushed towards him and yelled "Go away!! Get out of here!" waving my arm towards him, but he did not even back off, he just tried to strike me again, and I jumped back, just shy of his hooves. By this time I got a little afraid and felt rather alone and small in front of this large animal, and clutching my chihuahua, and with Plushy still by my heels barking furiously, I tried to back away slowly, and get away from the deer, but he blocked my escape. All the hair on his back and neck stood straight up, and he ran circles around me looking very tense and aggressive, just out of arms reach, pausing a few times to rear up again and try to hit me. Not knowing what else to do, I continued to back up very slowly, but I knew it was a long way to my truck, and every time I turned my back to him, he rushed at me from behind. It seemed that when we were all together he would only come just out of reach, but he kept attempting to separate us. So I continued this way for a while, walking backwards slowly and trying not to let him see that I was afraid. When we had gone about 20 minutes like this, he gradually got farther away from us and let us go, but was watching us and following us at a distance the rest of the way back to the truck. So we were ok, but it just left me completely confused as to why a deer would do such a thing? I was shocked to think deer would ever behave in that manner. They usually run away, and that's all I ever thought they would do. So much for cute furry wildlife. Oh, and when in Montana- beware the deer!