A few years ago, a buddy and myself headed off to put some apples out. I usually dump a hundred pounds at a time (two bags), so I asked him to give me a hand carrying them to the bait site. We parked the truck and started up the overgrown field.

I thought that I caught some movement at the top of the field and I said "Hold up a minute Den, I think I saw something" We waited for a couple of minutes and never seen anything, so we started on again.

About halfway up the trail, I stepped around a small pine tree and came face to face with a doe deer. I was no more than 10 feet from her! I said to Dennis - "Whatever you do don't move" He was standing directly behind me and he couldn't believe that the deer was still standing there.
Suddenly the doe started walking towards me and to tell you the truth it made me a bit nervous. All I could picture was those front hooves coming up and flailing me - like I had seen on TV once. What happened next is quite unbelievable but true. She stuck her nose out and touched my pant-leg. She backed up and worked her way around the pine and went right up to Dennis and sniffed the back of his pants. Then, she came back around and resumed her position about ten feet from me and continued staring.

She snapped her head sideways suddenly and I looked over to see a fawn heading our way. The little one (I say little, but, it was almost as big as her) came right up and stood beside Mom. It started toward me once but the doe stomped her front leg twice and gave a little blat and the fawn quickly hurried in behind her.

The whole time this was going on, Dennis and I had been standing there motionless, each with a 50lb bag of apples on our shoulder and it was starting to ache. I shuffled a little bit hoping to push the deer off without scaring them too bad, but, they never moved. I spoke to them and still got no reaction. Finally I just started walking - I said "Go on Momma, get outta here..." The two bolted over to the edge of the field and came to a stop and started watching us again. We went over and dumped the apples at the top of the field and started back down the trail. Before we were halfway down the field, the two of them were in the apples eating.

I don't know what caused the odd behavior - maybe they had never seen humans before or maybe it was some odd characteristic of the doe's genes. I seen them three more times before hunting season opened and everytime they just went about their business, cautious, but unalarmed. Then they disappeared. I figured for sure that being as "tame" as they were - they probably made an easy target for some hunter. All season there was no sign of them.

On the last day of the season, I went into a hardwood ridge to retrieve a stand that I had used to tag out on a 5 pt a couple of weeks earlier. I got there about three hours before dark, so I figured I would sit for a little while and see what would wander by. About 15 minutes later - there she came with her little one - poking along through the beech leaves. I felt like somebody who had found their lost dog. They passed right underneath me and made their way out into a clearcut. They had survived after all.

I never saw them again that year - but everytime I see a deer in that area it makes me wonder if it is one of them.