OH, Deer!!!

Last night I was not my usual self. I was up past 10 pm!!!! I’d been watching the DVR’D recording of Big Brother with Mr. Perfectly. We decided to watch the evening episode of REAL WORLD when we were done.

I’m an early to bed girl. I enjoy my sleep…….I think I must be a crazy sleeper, since I wake up and have blankets piled in the middle of my body with my head and feet sticking out. I don’t GO to bed like that…so I must wrestle the hell out of the sheets all night long.

Anyway, Son #2 was supposed to be home by 10:30. I get a call at 10:27 that he’s ‘just leaving’ because he ‘lost track of time’ while they were in the pool. He was in a rural community about 12 miles away, and still needed to stop and get gas. **SIGH**. So, I have him the mom lecture about being late……..keeping track of time……..not being allowed to drive if he habitually ‘lost track’ of time…..yada yada yada…….

10 or 15 minutes later, I get another call from an excited sounding Son #2. I was making small talk….like ‘Hello”…..”what’s up” when he interrupted me and said “MOM….I hit a deer”. Talk about the gut hitting the floor, and the heart leaping into the throat. He was breathing kind of heavily so I tried to ask calmly….as CALMLY as a parent can be when they are FREAKING OUT……”are you okay?” Which, of course, sent Mr. P into the depths of worry….giving me the eye…..shaking his hands….BEGGING to know what happened…….by this time, I’d determined that Son #2 was fine….the truck SEEMED fine (to a 16 yr old with 3 weeks of driving under his belt), and that he was at the gas station.

Mr. P. rushed to put on some jeans and a t-shirt while I talked to Son #2…He was coming over a hill, and the deer jumped into the road in front of him, and they had an unfortunate collision. One in which the deer didn’t fare quite as well as the truck.

The truck, according to Son #2, had a bent up license plate, but no other visible damage. We told him to stay put, and we went to ‘rescue’ him. Mr. P wanted to see and drive the truck just to be SURE it wasn’t damaged in some way that would hurt it worse by driving it.

We jumped into the car and drove to the small community that is about 7 miles from us that son #2 stopped at to get gas and call us.

I’m proud of the kid. He’s my more emotional kid…he didn’t stop on the dark TWO LANE highway (over the crest of a hill no less) to check on the deer or the truck. He kept driving to a lighted spot, THEN checked out the truck….and got gas.

We picked him up and went to see if the deer managed to get off the road. Son #2 said he didn’t think there was any way…it was a baby, and he’d hit it then run over it. He said he felt bad for leaving the deer in the road.

As we checked on the deer, we found his remains in the road still……it looked like maybe he’d been hit again….so we notified the local police and they said they’d go dispose of the deer carcass.

As it turns out, the alignment to the truck is now OUT of alignment. We just had it aligned in May……but if that is the only damage…….that and a slightly bent plate…then we are lucky.

Son #2 seemed to remember the coaching we gave him about what to do in this situation, and thankfully he wasn’t hurt…..just a little shaken. Deer being hit in this area is commonplace. Even in our small city………you’ll see deer in the city roads sometimes. But you ALWAYS see deer along highways around here….we’ve told him a MILLION times if we’ve told him once, to try to remain calm, DO NOT SWERVE, and if you have to hit it head on, then do it….to avoid hitting other cars, or careening out of control. To apply the brakes firmly, but try not to fishtail…..He seemed to handle the truck well, and although shaken up a bit, stayed relatively calm. Not bad for a kid who just literally got his license 3 weeks earlier.

Speaking of Deer, we have deer in our backyard at times. And we live quite close to a main thoroughfare…..so although we are a small city……we have all sorts of wildlife to view right in our OWN backyard…….literally in our backyard.

Toodles, my woodland friends!!!