Just another day at the zoo ...

Autumn is fast approaching, the apples are swelling and taking on a rosy tint, and our resident herd of deer continues to grow. I think word is getting around that the grazing is great and the family dog is a vegetarian ( or acts like one, anyway ). We haven't fenced our fruit trees - we figure the fruit on the lower branches is fair game to the local wildlife, so depending on the crop we often have raccoons or deer making fast-food stops in the yard. The coons are considerably more wary than their hooved neighbours, we only ever see them if we happen to surprise them at night ( although we did  have one that took up residence for a bit in our woodshed ... I'd catch glimpses of his/her grumpy face squinting at me when I went out to fill the woodbox in the mornings ). Our deer, however, have established firm squatting rights, and will happily browse around us while we work outside. Not even chainsawing will faze them. I swear they have a higher tolerance for loud noise than I do. We've noticed a number of does, two of which have fawns at present - twins for one doe, a single babe for the other. We wondered at first whether Ayla, our pooch, would react more aggresively when faced with the clearly more vulnerable young, but she seems to consider them just another odd-looking variety of dog.

Definitely worth sacrificing a few apples.