Although our lot is just one acre, it borders a large wetland teeming with all sorts of wildlife, both big and small. The image here captures a doe and her two fawns nibbling on the low-growing vegetation in our front yard. Deer are frequent visitors to our property—several dozen stop by daily, mostly to munch on our juniper shrubs.

Jon, in his infinite wisdom, came up with an idea: why not put out a small deer feeder with deer pellets to keep them from destroying the shrubs? As you can probably guess, this plan backfired spectacularly. Instead of fewer deer, we now attract even more! We only put out about half a gallon of feed each night, yet we’ve created a nightly buffet for 20 to 40 deer.

While we enjoy watching them, we make sure not to interact directly—no hand-feeding or petting. The deer are somewhat used to us, though. They’ll retreat into the woods when we go outside, but not too far, keeping a watchful eye from the tree line.

Ozzy, our Golden Retriever, loves to give chase, though one particularly bold deer refuses to play along. Instead of running, it just stands there, leaving Ozzy utterly baffled—after all, aren’t they supposed to run?

Clyde, our cat, has an entirely different relationship with the deer. In his mind, they work for him. 

He often lounges near them, and on one memorable occasion, I saw him strolling across the backyard with three deer following closely behind. When I stepped outside to take a closer look, there was Clyde sitting regally on a stump, while the deer grazed around him like loyal subjects. It truly felt like he was holding court. I only wish I’d had my phone handy to capture the moment!