There she was, frightened into immobility, surrounded by alien creatures – those of us who came to see, gawk and wonder what was a deer doing on Main Avenue in Ocean Grove??? The little creature somehow wandered into our midst in the early dawn hours and was wandering around Main Avenue (didn’t she know the shops don’t open till around 8:30 or 9am?) Eventually she strolled over to a vacant lot which straddles both Main Ave and Heck St. So there she was…trapped! Because now the onlookers were quickly gathering on both streets and she was in the middle. If you know anything about deer, you know that they are ever on the alert for movement around them as they are the favorite prey of hunters and a couple of natural enemies too. God or if you would prefer Mother Nature dressed the deer in a camouflage tan so they would disappear amongst tree branches and instinct has taught them to be motionless until they sense the danger has passed. This deer looked like a lawn statue only occasionally moving her head from side to side as some slight movement sent more adrenalin pumping through her body and tensing every muscle to be ready to bolt if necessary. I took a couple more photos with my little point and shoot and without a really good lens, it was hard to get a clear and close -up shot of the deer.
And then I left…tears were rolling down my cheeks. I could NOT watch this poor animal anymore, so confused, so trapped – and there was talk that maybe they were going to try to tranquilize it and I sure didn’t want to see that. I left Peter behind to see the outcome and walked home, hoping that the deer would somehow be able to escape.

