On a warm evening in May, I went outside, down through various cow pastures, till I was quite a ways from the house. I kept moving to try to discourage the mosquitoes that were whining for my blood.
Suddenly my eye caught a bright white spot through a clump of trees away out in a field. An albino white-tailed deer! It was a startling white with very pink ears, and it was browsing alongside two normally colored herd mates.
The albino and one of the other deer were completely calm, raising their heads once in a while for a look around, but the third deer was highly suspicious. I crept closer, standing motionless when one raised its head, and that third deer was a mite antsy. Twice or three times its white flag shot up and it bounded across the field, only to circle nervously back. I was surprised that the other two didn’t take off with it.
Ten or fifteen minutes later, something startled all three, and they disappeared over a hill.
I went on with my walk and went over the same hill. From there, the land gently sloped all the way down to the creek bottoms, giving an expansive view of the big “Back Field” on this side of the creek and the planted pines on the far side.
There I stopped. A dozen or so deer, the albino included, were scattered across the Back Field. I’d never seen such a big herd before. A few timid ones fled when I appeared, but the rest just stood there, craning their slender necks. Then one of them began trotting up the slope toward me. In a minute, the whole herd was advancing cautiously.
I said something aloud, and they flipped up their tails and went flying to the bottom of the field. I sat on the ground and started singing various hymns and folk songs, and those deer started coming back! Over and over, their curiosity would get the better of them, and they would come closer for a look. Then the leaders would spook and they would whirl for the bottom. The albino was with the rest. I wondered if it knew how different it was.
Finally, the deer decided to call it a day, and the herd hightailed for the pines across the creek.
I wandered back home after a while, busy thinking. I’d never seen deer do anything besides snort and run. It surely made for an interesting evening when they held their ground!
