The Coffee House Philosopher

One of the activities that Patti and I enjoy at our two modest homes is feeding “critters.” If you’ve ever read the story of Johnny Appleseed (actual name John Chapman), he was an easterner who traveled throughout Pennsylvania and Ohio planting apple trees in the late 1600s and early 1700s, clad with a tin cooking pot on his head for a hat. By studying odd Johnny’s animal classifications, one might recall that the world is composed of two groups of animals – critters and varmints.

Critters are the fuzzy and cuddly friendly creatures that people like to pet, and snap their pictures. Patti has probably taken at least four million pictures of them. And varmints are the ones that bite or sting, and are dangerous to critters.

Critter feed expenses can mount up. For domesticated critters, there is dog food and cat food. Birds and other small critters generally consume small seeds and larger sunflower seeds. Bigger creatures go for apples, carrots, and even some “junk food,” which might contains some sugar. For many years, Patti and I have regularly put out food for various types of tame and wild small creatures, but tended to avoid larger critters.

Then in Angel Fire, New Mexico, in September of 2017, I bent over to put out sunflower seeds for the furry gray squirrels and birds along our deck rails and window sills. Gray squirrels are also called tufted squirrels because of their generous long gray hair on top of their ears. As I bent over, I suddenly became aware of something pressing in against the large cup of seeds I held in my right hand beside my right pocket. I quickly glanced down and was more than little startled to find a large furry head trying to get its mouth into the cup. And that was how I met Sasha, an extremely gregarious female deer.

The first day, Sasha came alone, and ate several packages of sectioned carrots and apples. Patti and I were thrilled to meet a beautiful forest creature up so close and personal, as well as fascinated by her apparent self-assurance and impatience of getting a constant supply of tidbits passed her way. She munched away greedily, and constantly pressed us for more, pushing her nose into the bags in our hands whenever the treats came her way too slowly. At first we were a bit cautious, because we knew a wild deer’s hooves could be dangerous, but her friendly confident manner quickly dissipated any fears we had.

During the next three weeks, Sasha returned on most days, sometimes several times a day. And on some occasions, three yearling fawns would follow her down. Two of the yearlings were clearly her own, since she allowed them to eat next to her. The third was apparently an orphaned youngster which had at some time adopted itself into the group for protection from predators, because it always hung back several yards during feeding. Sasha would drive it away whenever it tried to get too close to the main three members while eating. We named the adopted yearling “Cinderella.”

Then in early October of last year, we winterized our small New Mexico house, and returned to Alva for the winter months. In late November, we returned to New Mexico to repair external damage to our home when neighbors reported a bear had tried to break in, and hibernate the winter in style. We took along plenty of deer corn, apples, and carrots in case Sasha would show up, but she and her group were nowhere to be found.

Then in late May of this year, we returned to Angel Fire, and one morning within five days of our arrival, Sasha and her troupe were impatiently waiting for breakfast when we exited our house. We knew it was Sasha because of her customary habit of tossing of her head up and down, and also her trademark habit of leaning in on the front of our deck with her two front hooves placed upon the outer benches. It was Sasha all right.

Throughout the summer of 2018, Patti and I fed Sasha and most of her groups (which on occasion ranged up to 15 or more deer) a variety of deer corn and assorted vegetables. If we didn’t cater to her group quickly enough, Sasha would come to our living room window and peer in until we reacted. During feedings she would reluctantly allow us to pet her, but it was clearly not one of her favorite things.

During the summer, she expanded her food selection to include ginger snaps and Ritz crackers. And later we got word from others that a very friendly deer had been getting cupcakes and Cheetos from golfers playing golf on the course. We have a pretty good idea of which deer that might have been.

Inasmuch as we have not been able to find deer corn supplies near Angel Fire, Dan and Neva Egner of Alva have heretofore been willing to bring extra supplies of corn whenever they make a trip to New Mexico. Feeding wild animals can be a little dicey, because baiting animals to a house in Angel Fire can be cause for a hefty fine. The logic for the fine is that herds of grazing animals could attract dangerous predatory animals such as bears or mountain lions.

When we returned to Oklahoma this October, it was pretty hard to leave Sasha and her group, which sometimes included up to five mother does nursing small fawns. We hope that Angel Fire’s year around residents will help our neighborhood deer get through the tougher parts of the winter.