She’s Alive!

It’s been more than a month since Iowa’s multi-faceted deer hunting seasons concluded on January 10.  Since then, I’ve been scouring the landscape in an effort to lay eyes on what has become my favorite white-tail – a doe I call Bobtail.  I call her Bobtail because, at some point in her danger filled life, the deer’s flag was literally chopped in half – perhaps the result of a hungry coyote falling short of its mark.

I first spotted Bobtail in 2017 when she leaped across the road in front of my truck during a December snowstorm.  She was already a mature deer at that time, making her at least two or three years old during our first encounter.  Since that brief introduction, Bobtail has provided me with dozens of observations over the years. 

Many of those sightings were at a distance.  Others have been more up close and personal at distances of less than ten yards.  Listed high on my list of favorites are the times I’ve been able to view and photograph Bobtail with her latest set of twin fawns.  Although she may have already produced fawns before I first spotted her in 2017, I know for a fact that Bobtail has produced a beautiful set of twins every year since. 

I’ve also learned that Bobtail’s home range runs at least four miles in length and includes both public and private lands – all of which are heavily hunted during the archery, shotgun, and late muzzleloading deer seasons.  It’s become obvious that God has certainly blessed this deer with some well-honed and above average survival skills. 

Because I also enjoy hunting across a portion of her range, I am always mindful that Bobtail just might be the next deer to come walking down the trail.  Consequently, I never even think of drawing my bow on an antlerless deer until I’m sure it’s not her — even when I’m in desperate need of fresh venison.  Completely void of any scientific or biological reasoning, I’ll admit that the choice is purely emotional. 

Although I have recently put my binoculars on a good number of post season deer, Bobtail has been missing in action — nowhere to be found.  As the suspense continued well into February, I became less and less confident that she was still with us. 

The suspense abruptly ended when, late in the afternoon of February 14, I spotted a group of five deer slowly browsing their way through a snowy woodland.  Bringing up the rear was the deer I call Bobtail. 

“She’s Alive,” I exclaimed!  Fortunately, the deer were too far away to detect my spontaneous, out loud paraphrase from the movie Frankenstein.  I continued to watch through binoculars until the herd eventually disappeared to the north. 

My new hope now is that, sometime in May, I’ll be able to spot Bobtail again, this time in the company of her latest pair of brightly spotted, twin fawns.