It was the middle of summer in a small town called Harvey, in the city of Marquette, Michigan. The road driveway to my families cabin is really long it takes about a half-hour just to get to the cabin. Our camp is a very little, quaint, one bedroom in the middle of the woods. There is a creek the flows around our land, which is about 8 acres. About a half a mile away there is a rundown cabin that we call “Jack”s house”. My dad always said that there was an old man Jack, who lived there. He would tell us that Jack would watch us at night while we were asleep.
Supposedly there was a rumor that he ate humans and animals for survival. He even told us that there were bears all surrounding us, but I never actually saw one. We usually go there on weekends during the summer for a vacation away from the city, but sometimes we end up staying longer. There isn”t really much to do out there, so if we don”t go to town, we go to Presque Isle Island near our camp. It is located in Marquette, Michigan, on Lake Superior, which is one of the coldest and biggest of the five Great Lakes. There are large rocks out there that we climb called Black Rocks.
Besides the rocks there are a couple of parks with swings and slides, and a nature path that has a few site lookouts. It is so peaceful out there that all you can hear are the sounds of nature. As I pulled up in my car, I stopped and began to get out to go for a walk on the nature trail. As I looked up, I saw the deer. There was something about the way his helpless eyes gazed at me. I slowly started to approach him. It looked as if he had no hope for his life left. His hair was very thin but rough around his neck and legs.
There was dried up blood above his left eye it seemed as if he were in a harmful fight with another deer recently. I slowly and calmly continued to walk towards him trying, as much as possible, not to frighten him in any way. ” It”s ok, I won”t hurt you. I want to try to help you live and be healthy. ” I said. As I got closer to him I could see felt covering two bumps on the top of his head. It was his antlers, which were just beginning to grow for his own protection and survival during the bitter cold winter that lay ahead of him. His body was extremely thin and fragile.
I could not distinguish if he was very old, young or just sick. I gradually placed my hand out in front of his nose so he could smell me, as you would for a cat or dog. I had this weird 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 seen or even been this close to any wild animal in the woods or the city like this. I was used to being around some domestic animals, not deer. My mom, my brother, and my boyfriend all tried to approach the deer, but it would back away, as if it was frightened of them but not of me.
My whole life I have always loved animals. My dream, ever since I was a little girl, was to help animals in any way that I could, even if I was just brushing my dogs” teeth, or clipping my cats” nails. I don”t know how some men and women could ever want to hurt these innocent animals by hunting them for food or pleasure. They are a living and breathing mammal that is here for a reason, just as you and me are. The deer seemed content with me. I must have had some thing about me that made him feel this way. After he sniffed my hand for awhile, he brushed his body against my side softly.
It was amazing the way he felt so comfortable with me, like no other animal has before. He totally trusted me for some reason, and I don”t know why. I bent over and picked some weeds from off of the ground so I could feed him. After he finished licking my hand, he watched me to make sure I kept giving him more and more to eat. He inhaled it so quickly, as if he hadn”t eaten in awhile. Step by step, I grabbed some more weeds and other greens to feed him. I tried to walk away after about fifteen minutes of feeding him, but he would follow me wherever I would go. He didn”t want me to go and if he had to he would follow me everywhere.
He even followed me onto the lookout site. I called him and snapped my fingers to try to get his attention so I could get him off of it. As he walked behind me I would pull and bend the branches of trees he couldn”t reach down, so he could eat the leaves off of them. As the leaves gradually started to be scarce, I saw this lady back in the depth of the woods with four original deer and one albino deer around her. I walked up to her. She had about three buckets filled with corn. She said she fed the deer everyday through all of the season, whether it was very hot or extremely cold.
The lady gave me a bucket to feed the one that had been following me. I knelt on the grass and he sat next to me while I hand fed him for about another hour. As much as I wanted to stay there with him forever, I knew I couldn”t. I don”t really know why the deer acted this way towards me. I must have made him feel very secure and content with me. Some people think I have an aura about me that somehow attracts animals to love and trust me so much. Animals make me feel so good about myself. They always seem to make me feel good about myself. I feel they actually know I am on this earth for someone or some reason.
My dream was to be a veterinarian for large animals such as this. Until about four months ago I worked in a veterinary hospital to get field experience. While I was working there I had a major allergy attack and was in the hospital. They said there is really no way I could ever be a veterinarian and be happy. If I did decide to be a veterinarian, I would either be miserable, or be on medication all of the time. I now try to find a way to be around animals without being a vet. Such as I go to Presque Isle just to visit the deer and other little creatures out there.
