I was talking on the phone with a client in Chicago one day when two white tail deer wandered by in front of my house. I stopped talking in mid sentence to comment on it. My client in Chicago was amazed she had never seen a live deer before.

By the way I forgot to mention Kathy those are great pictures in your article.

I believe what you say about timing the seasons by the wild life, so is spring on the way?

We live in a natural migration path for the Elk. During late February, March or April it’s not unusual to wake up in the morning and watch a herd of 50 or so Elk appear out of the early morning mists in our pasture. Last year we had an injured Elk living across the lane in front of our house. I discovered or rather my German Shepherd dog Max discovered her early one morning when I took the dogs out. She couldn’t run because of an injured shoulder and he good dog that he is did not try to chase her and soon they were intent on getting to know each other nose to nose.

Now, my natural instinct was to put a big pile of hay from my barn, some grain and a bucket full of water close to her, but I called Fish and game and Ben told me they were aware of her and she had plenty of water and natural feed near by. The best we could hope for was when the herd passed through in early April she would go along with them. If I was to feed and water her that would make it easier for her to stay and she would not make it through the summer. He assured me he would check on her regularly to make sure she was fine.

I saw signs that over night she stayed next to my mare on the outside of the run and during the day she would go back to the cover of a clump of trees. Every morning first thing Max would run over and visit with her nose to nose again. Then one morning we went out and she was gone, moved on with the herd that had come through.

As long as they can stand and walk a little Fish and Game like to let nature take it’s course but if they are down and can’t get up then they take other measures.