News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Folks in Sisters delight in the sight of deer in town, crossing in a crosswalk or lounging on a green lawn. But those cute critters can be highly aggressive - especially a doe protecting a new fawn - and downright terrifying.
Ask Amy Abramson.
Last Friday at about 10:45 a.m., the proprietor of Blue Burro Imports on Elm Street was walking with her dog before work in the woods where Pine Street and Forest Road 100 meet at the north end of town. She and her Corgi/Aussie mix Mango walk there maybe four or five times a week. On this day, they were confronted by a doe.
"A mama deer was in probably, I don't know, about 10 feet of us," Abramson recalled. "The mama deer squared off with Mango and pretty much just chased her in circles."
The doe hit Mango at least three times, tumbling the small dog along the ground and trampling her. Amy lost sight of the dog in the sagebrush.
"All of a sudden, everything stopped and then the mama deer came after me," she said.
For 15 minutes, the deer relentlessly came at Abramson, who became disoriented and couldn't pinpoint where she'd parked her car.
"I was throwing rocks and sticks - anything I could grab I was throwing at her, and yelling at her," she recalled.
Amy caught sight of her car.
"I bee-lined it for my car and she chased me to my car," she said.
For another 20 minutes, the deer stalked the area.
"I couldn't go back into the woods to see if Mango was OK," she said.
It turned out that Mango had taken off and headed to Amy's shop. A neighboring businessperson called to tell her that Mango was at Blue Burro, and was, somehow, unhurt.
Once she knew that Mango wasn't hurt or killed, Abramson was able to drive off and head to work.
Abramson couldn't definitively explain the deer's extremely aggressive behavior, but she believes there might have been a fawn bedded down in the area - though she did not see one.
She wanted to let people know about the experience, because many people walk in areas that deer frequent in Sisters. Female deer have sharp hooves that can do a lot of damage.
"I was terrified," she said. "I was worried about my dog and I was worried about myself - I was worried about my safety and not getting hurt. She wouldn't leave me alone."
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
Reader Comments(0)