Takin' the Blog for a Walk

D'oh! a deer

Posted by Brien Lee on Oct. 10, 2008

6) when I'm feeling sad

The good news is I've gone 17,345 days without hitting a deer. Bad news is the streak ended this morning.

I drove through Pebble Valley today, which I never do, because I had the time, which I never have. I opened at work today so left a little early to make sure to catch the bus. I always take Northview to Meadowbrook but had a couple extra minutes to take the scenic route. Unfortunately for the deer and the Toyota, the scenic route includes lots of pretty wildlife. If you live around Pebble Valley Park and heard tires screech around 6:30 and a gunshot around 7:00 you have me to thank.

I'm fortunate that my life doesn't include a lot of really bad things, so when I hit a beautiful doe while travelling around 30 on Pebble Valley Road I had to ask myself, "What do I do? What do I do? God, what do I do?"  I've never hit a deer before. Not even hunting. The one time I went gun hunting for deer I fell out of a tree and broke an ankle.

So what do you do when no one's around, you're fine and the car's OK, but the deer you just hit is sitting up on the terrace where it landed looking at you? You know the legs are broken, but without internal injuries you know it could suffer a long time. The doe is just a few feet from the car and you know any movement from you will cause the deer to struggle. Do you pull out your pocket knife to end it's misery, get bit by the deer but make it to work on time - though disheveled - only to find after work that you've made the papers?

After saying a short prayer to do the right thing I slowly pulled away. It immediately struggled to get up but couldn't. A few minutes later at the bus stop I borrowed a kind person's cell and I called 911 to report what I'd done.

After work I went back the same route to see evidence, maybe learn what happened, find the missing Toyota emblem. Because this happened in a residential area next to a park I easily overheard kids still talking about it. I asked what they knew and admitted what I'd done. They directed me to talk to neighbors across the street who they said knew all about it. Because the neighbors were just arriving home I just wandered over, didn't even have to ring the bell. They heard the tires screech and also called the police. They weren't home when it was put down but estimate it was between 7:00 and 7:15.

For all but one of the parties involved there is not such a bad ending. The Toyota wasn't too badly damaged and is fully insured. The neighbor I talked to called a friend who came over and took the deer for meat. I feel I did the right thing and I know Waukesha Police did the right thing.