Our Van is Totalled

DH called this morning from work and passed on the good news that he hit a deer while driving in. He didn't get hurt but he couldn't drive it. A man from the DOT was on his way to work when he saw DH and stopped and picked him up.

I spent the morning rushing the kids around to go get DH, drop him off, so he and my brother could pick up the van. It was sad seeing it on the side of the road, smashed with pieces of metal behind it. Sadder still was the poor deer. He was a large and beautiful buck, in his prime. He would have made beautiful offspring - probably was on his way to do so, when he met his doom. It's that time of the year when bucks have only one thing on their mind, making driving so dangerous now.

Also on the way down, we saw our second black bear dead on the side of the road. That's the second one in a little over a week! In my 40+ years here on earth - I've seen 4 dead black bears on the roadside - and 2 of them were just those that were recently hit! I wonder if that means our bear population has increased. It seems like we are seeing a lot more critters that I don't remember seeing hardly at all as a child. Bobcats and coyotes are much more abundant, and the rabbit population is showing it. You don't see many rabbits any more. My brother saw an unusual animal - one he's never seen before (could it be Bigfoot?!) He contacted the Game Commission, described it to them, and they sent him a link to see if it's what he saw. Sure enough, it was. He saw a Fisher. They have been reintroducing them into our area. He had to fill out a report for them. I take it that they've been extinct in our area since the time of the Depression because they were wiped out from pelt hunting (at least that's my understanding of it). I thought that was just so cool!