where the wild things sometimes are

perhaps you can make out the two deer by the trees in the foreground?

If you have followed my blog for a while, you know about my morning walks at a park a few miles from my home. I especially love the trails and seeing the deer habitat and barnyard animals.
Well, a few weeks ago a terrible tragedy happened at the deer habitat. Loose dogs from surrounding neighborhoods killed 24 0f the 29 deer including several fawns after digging under the chain link fence surrounding the area. It happened during the early morning hours before opening and was a terrible shock to the workers when they arrived that morning. The few deer that survived have a stressful look on their faces and seem skittish when I see them now. When I started my Autumn walks there I noticed how many adorable fawns there were, but they were no match for a red chow chow, a black Rottweiler mix and a Labrador mix . The red chow is till at large.
Of course this made me a little jumpy as I was walking the other day. A rustling in the bushes up ahead happened to be two of several wild turkeys that roam the park. And today along a trail I saw some movement off the road and was pleasantly surprised to find two does out in the wild who happened to make it into the Park!
I still love my walks there as I feel renewed and refreshed by the crisp air and the way the sunlight filters through the trees casting dancing shadows along the path. It is a time of thinking and contemplating life and some prayer and some solace, which is a lovely thing indeed!
(the bottom picture has the two deer in it but it is hard to make out with having taken pic with my cell phone)