Trey Mitchell
N1 10/10/08
English
THE STRANGE DEER
It was the middle of summer in a small town called Sweetwater, near the city of Abliene, Texas. The road to my family's cabin was lengthy; it took a half-hour to get to the cabin from the road. Our camp was a small, one bedroom cabin in the middle of the woods. A creek flowed around our eight acres. A half mile away was a rundown cabin that we called "Jack's house." My dad always said that an old man named Jack lived there. He told us that Jack watched us at night while we were asleep. There was a rumor that he ate humans and animals for survival. Dad told us that bears surrounded the cabin, but I never saw one. We went there on weekends during the summer to vacation away from the city, but sometimes we stayed longer. There wasn't much to do there, so we mormally just took long walks which were fun.
I pulled up in my car, and went for a walk on the nature trail; I looked up, I saw the deer. There was something about the way his eyes gazed at me. I approached it. It looked helpless. His hair was thin, rough around his neck and legs. There was dried up blood above his left eye. It seemed as though he had been in a fight with another deer. I slowly and calmly continued to
walk towards him, trying not to frighten him in any way. " It's OK. I won't hurt you. I want to try to help you," I said.
I got closer to him and saw felt covering two bumps on the top of his head his antlers. They were beginning to grow for his own protection and survival during the bitter cold winter that lay ahead. His body was thin and fragile. I could not distinguish if he was old, young or just sick. I gradually placed my hand out in front of his nose so he could smell me, as I would for a cat or dog. I had this uncanny feeling inside, a feeling of love and warmth. For some reason he trusted me more than anyone else. I thought maybe there was something that he knew about me.
I had never been this close to any wild...