Boo!

This is the closest I’m getting to a Halloween post. Most animals do not scare me especially most of the animals I encounter on a regular basis here in Northern Virginia. A barking dog is probably the scariest animal I encounter when I am out and about. I saw a coyote while walking earlier this year but the coyote, which was traipsing only about twenty yards from me down a steep embankment, took off in a hurry once I made my presence known. I have been snake bitten before though not by anything venomous and I have been dive bombed by a blue jay which left me with a serious headache. I suppose I should throw in the fact that I’m still a big baby when it comes to ridding our garage and shed of rodents. Mice and rats still get me squeamish. However, that’s about it for scary run in’s with wildlife.

Last week, while driving home from hockey practice, my son and I had a run in with a creature we had never seen before and likely will never see again. Driving through one of Northern Virginia’s many wooded neighborhoods I slowed my car as a line of cars in front of me crawled their way to a stop sign. As we came to a halt two young looking deer bolted across the road in front of us trailed by a most ghostly sight! Was it a white deer that was running just behind the others? Was it a ghost? Was it some sort of demon creature? Perhaps a zombie deer?

Like I said, this is the closest I’m coming to a Halloween post. My son and I had, in fact, just seen a piebald deer. My blogging co-host and brother claims to have seen an albino deer in southern Virginia years ago and I have definitely kept my eyes open for one but never saw one until last week. What I saw, apparently, was not an albino deer but rather, a slightly less elusive piebald deer. I did not get any pictures of the deer but imagine the brown and white spotted pattern of a cow and that is what the deer I saw looked like. The deer had me staring though it passed in front of us so quickly that I can not say I really had a really good view of it. Still, I know what I saw and I saw enough of it to know that it was something quite unique. In order to avoid any copyright issues (which would really be scary) I am not including stock pictures from the internet so you will have to use your imagination.

Many years ago, I saw an albino squirrel but haven’t seen another one since. My guess is that the glimpse I had of the piebald deer is the only one I’ll ever get. Happy Halloween.