What Brings Us Comfort

As I headed out for my run on Easter Sunday, it was hard not to be a little downcast given all the snow that had fallen in the night. I had tights and toque on once more, rather than the shorts and cap I had worn two days before.

I began jogging up the ice-covered road, with Sinead O’Connor singing in my ear about "eight good reasons to stick around," when I glanced to my left and saw a deer loping along in the field beside me. Yes, beside me. I may be stating the obvious here, but wild deer are not given to following humans. They might cut across our path by accident, but they don't generally try to keep pace with us.

I would have been more surprised had I not encountered the same deer for the first time last winter when she followed Griffy and me on our walk. Now that was shocking. She came right up to us, and she stood there calmly as Griffy tried to sniff every inch of her. The three of us walked together to our closest neighbours, and Gary took her to his barn and fed her until discovering that she belonged to a family on a nearby farm. Who knew people had pet deer.

I had encountered the deer again earlier this winter while I was running on the same road.  Once more, I thought she was wild, and was I horrified as I watched the neighbours’ dogs, a shepherd and his sidekick beagle, begin to chase it.  I shouted at them to stop, and they froze, but so did the deer.  She actually waited on the other side of the road for them to pursue her again.  Turns out they were friends of sorts.

After seeing her in the field this morning, I looked behind me, and sure enough there were shepherd and beagle, following me amicably. Last time, shepherd ran almost two km with me to the junction of a much busier road. When I saw he was going to follow me on that road, I decided I'd better double back and take him home. We picked up beagle, who had stopped in the middle of the road, not willing to follow us, but also not willing to go home without his trusty shepherd. Then the three of us ran together until they found deer, who was in the field awaiting their return. I left the three of them romping in the field together while I finally completed my run.

Luckily, on this occasion, deer followed only a short time, while the dogs stopped at the bridge to inspect the slowly awakening brook. With the animals behind me, I turned my music back on and continued my run. I soon turned onto a paved road where the footing was better despite the snow that was beginning to fall. With snow starting to settle upon my brow, I ran by Farmer Parkin's yard and saw my first calf of the spring. He could not have been more than a few days old, yet the falling snow did not seem to trouble him, as he was intent only on his mother's milk, while she was intent only on obliging him.

Cheered by that small moment, I picked up my pace and was striding along when Farmer Parkin drove by with his arm out the truck window, waving enthusiastically. I waved back with what I hoped was equal enthusiasm, while Sinead sang "yeah, take me to church, but not the ones that hurt," and I thought she might not mind this church of sorts, with its winding country roads and deer and dogs and young calves to soothe her.

Arriving home, I found the chickadees flitting back and forth around the depleted bird feeder, and as I placed the replenished feeder in the tree, the sun managed to slip, for a moment, through a snow-filled sky.