I spent the better part of the morning looking for Kiara, one of the dogs who lives on the farm. She was nowhere to be found. In the midst of looking for this dog, I came across quite a few deer. The first sighting happened when I reached the orchard. I had just gotten a ways past the entrance and two deer shot out from the brush. I think we startled each other. The first one took a look at me and then the second one, who was right behind, dashed past which made the first one bolt as well. They crossed my path and I watched their little white tails run up the hill. I was completely amazed.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a deer in nature before. I’m sure I’ve seen them at the zoo at one point in my life but it’s so different coming face to face with a large animal in their natural habitat. Their coats were light brown and one of them had faded white dots on their fur. Once the deer hit the top of the small hill one of them stopped, looked back and just stared at me. All I could do was stare back and smile. It was just for a couple of heartbeats but that moment filled me with pure joy. That pause was a gift. They turned and ran into the denser part of the woods and all I could see was a little white tail and white hind legs. I kept walking and thought to myself this is so cool and I couldn’t help but smile out loud.
I walked past the orchard, past the garden area, past another wooden gate, onto a path that would take me to a more wooded area. I took only a couple of steps onto the path and the blue jays started screeching up a storm, startling me and quite a few deer in the process. I can hear them bolting, branches breaking and I saw bits of hooves and quick dashes of light brown fur but I couldn’t quite make them out, there was too many tree trunks in the way to get a proper look. I also knew there was no way Kiara would be out this way because that dog would have been hunting those deer down if she was anywhere nearby. I walked further down the road until I hit the boulders but no sign of the dog.
Tony mentioned the other day to me that the spirits of the land doesn’t like the presence of the dogs. I wonder if Spirit cast Kiara out. Perhaps her presence was too disruptive. Hmmm. I’m just worried that she is tangled up with her metal chain on trees and brush somewhere unable to free herself. I may go out again and roam the land between the Indian pasture up into the denser paths to see if she’s just stuck.
Anyway, I turned back and started heading back to the studio. I swung by Mark’s place to see if Kiara had turned up and found Bo tucked underneath a white pickup truck for a little shade. No Kiara but Bo growled at me, of course. After I filled his bowl up with cold water and he took a long drink, he was my best friend. He tried to show his domination by sitting on my feet and leaning up against my legs but I pushed him off and started to walk up the hilly road. Once I cleared the hill, I found Zeus at the top by the chicken coops. I filled up a bowl of cold water for him too since I was up by the pump, then headed back on the road.
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