Our Deer Story

On this past boxing day I was going out to turn the heater on in my shop, when I came across the neighbour heading down towards the river with pack on, walking stick etc. I asked him if he was off for a hike and he said that he had spotted a deer in what looked like trouble way out on the river ice. I said that I would have a look with the binoculars and perhaps join him.

Sure enough there was a deer lying on the ice almost on the other side of the river, about a mile from our side. I got dressed, grabbed some rope and headed out to join our neighbour. As I got down almost to the edge of the river, he was coming back up the trail. I asked him what was wrong and he said "look out there a bit". What I saw was a large wolf about 200 meters from the shore line. Paul said that the wolf started to come towards him so he thought he would come back up as he felt vulnerable out there on the ice by himself. I told him I would go back to the house and get a rifle so that we could continue to go and see if we could help the deer.

We saw no more of the wolf as he headed off down river on the ice and did not come back, or at least out to where we were. We headed across the ice, towards the deer with John joining us. As we approached, it tried to get up and run off, but because the ice was glare in most places, it could not get proper footing and all its legs just went out from under and down it went. We figure It was probably trying to get across the river from the night before, and so had been on the ice for at least 12 hours.

It was easy enough to get up to and catch it. At first we thought by putting a rope on it we could sort of walk it to the other side and firm ground. That did not work though and we found the best way was to carry it, one person at the front and one at the rear. The deer seemed to know we were helping it as it lay quiet in our arms without any struggle. It was about 6oo meters to the other side and after a few rest stops we made it. We put it on solid ground and off it went on slightly splayed legs (after doing so many splits I guess). We all felt satisfied, not only in helping the deer but just being out there on a fine winters day.

Image one......This shows John and the deer.

Image two......This shows Harry and John with the deer.

Image three... This shows John and our neighbour Paul carrying the deer.