The Buck Stops Here, Literally

I was coming down the back stairs a little before 8:00 when I was stopped in my tracks stunned to see this buck on the other side of my chain link fence. Yikes!!! Fortunately, Emma hadn't spotted him, and I quickly ushered her back inside. (She had not received the memo about daylight savings time, so I did not want to deprive my neighbors of their extra hour of sleep. Lord knows how she would have reacted had she noticed our woodland visitor.)

I don't know how you judge the age of a buck, but his antlers appeared to be about eight to ten inches long. (A few years ago, a buck with a magnificent rack was seen in these same woods.) Now when I say "woods," it's a bit of a misnomer as it is merely a stretch of trees and brush which separate houses on my side of the street from the houses on the next. If you have followed my blog for any length of time, you know that deer have on occasion been spotted here . . . right in the middle of downtown suburbia. He didn't seem to mind at all when I returned to capture some photos. Eventually, he bounded off. . . an interesting start to the day.

On Friday, I went with my friend Marilyn to the Christmas Craft Festival at the World Trade Center. She had never gone before, and I haven't been for a long time. Since it was a balmy 70 degress, it was a bit difficult to embrace quite so early the holiday spirit though I must say the booth selling Christmas fascinators was doing a brisk business!

One always popular feature is always the display of gingerbread creations.

Now for Emma fans, here she is just after returning home from the groomer the other day spotting a cute little pumpkin doodad..

I liked the purple ribbon against her fur so much that I bought her a new purple and black print collar at the craft festival. (Don't tell her as it will probably go in her Christmas stocking. :-) There were one or two booths for cat lovers and quite a few more for dog lovers selling apparel, treats, etcs. and they were jampacked with owners eager to buy things for their furbabies.

Buck Update: Turns out there are a number of websites that explain how to determine the age of a buck. This was a big, healthy buck which based on the info is probably only about a year and a half.