Sunday, July 18, 2010

Ray 'Sees' a Deer

Friday, Lisa, Patch, Ray and I were walking along the power lines path. Ahead of us were two deer; they had stopped and were looking at us, tails twitching (not our tails, their tails). At first Patch didn't see them, but then he did. He was standing at attention, straining at his leash. Ray was oblivious for a minute but then he too was standing at attention. I couldn't decide if he sensed what Patch was doing or if he could smell the deer.
We continued down the path and the deer took off into the woods. When we neared the place where they had stood, the hair on Ray's back went up. He cautiously approached the exact spot where one of the deer had stood, jerking back every so often as if he was afraid of being attacked. He squatted down on his forelimbs, his butt in the air, his nose pressed against the ground, his back legs quivering in fear. I found myself wondering if he could smell size. Did he know that the things he was smelling were really large? If he could see them, would he have known that he could chase them away? As it was, he was afraid, ready to spring back on his haunches and run if needed. I talked to him and told him everything was OK. Ray cautiously continued to sniff for a bit longer, then we headed on down the path.
The brown dot in distance on the left is the deer. Ray is "looking" in totally the wrong direction.

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