Reprise

The caller ID said it was Lynn on her cell. Since it was 4:33, and she leaves work - on a good day - at 4:00 sharp, I pretty much knew where on her route home she had to be: right where it happened last time. And the time being what it was, it wasn't about a work issue, or she would have called before she left. So instead of answering, "Hi, Lynn," or "Hey, Lynn, what's up?", I answered the phone with, "Did the deer come alive again?"

I'm lucky she didn't run right off the road, she was laughing so hard. "How did you know?"

Laughingly I explained my reasoning and she - still laughing - filled me in on the details. It wasn't the same deer. I knew it couldn't be, since as the days went on I'd heard how, as the snow warmed, the first deer tilted at a 45 degree angle, then lay flat again with an eagle perched on it having a good meal. This time the deer was 3 miles south of the first, and there was no fresh snowfall or plow for an excuse. She'd passed this deer lying frozen on the shoulder for about three days, and she knew to look for it. Thus she wasn't at all startled to see it standing up again in the snow, just like the last one.

Not so for the tailgater she'd had riding her bumper all the way up 87 from St. Croix Falls. As soon as the deer came into view, he slammed on his brakes. He never did make it back up to riding her bumper again.

"We've got a practical joker up here, and whoever it is, I love him!" Not only had she gotten a good laugh to share with me, but the deer rid her of a slightly different kind of dangerous pest.

This time she promises to take her camera along on her way in to work tomorrow, shoot the deer, and email me a copy. When/if she does, I'll post it here.