I should have been a biologist. The stories of researchers spending months in the field watching animals day in and day out, seems to me like heaven. Even the tedious note taking and sketching doesn't seem like a job to me. I don't have the education for it but I do have the interest. And strangely the patience. I can spend hours watching animals, even for animals that aren't moving. This comes from years of going to zoos, leaning on the rail, watching the tigers sleep. It didn't matter that they didn't notice me (or even move) it only mattered that they were these magnificent living breathing creatures and that I could see them.
So when I came home tonight from work and stopped the car, I was excited to see a herd of deer in the woods near our house. I swiveled in my seat to watch them scavenge for food in the snow-buried field. They watched me at first but as I sat in the car and didn't move they eventually forgot I was there. That was when I noticed a buck closer to the river than the others. He watched me carefully. And then cautiously he moved closer and closer. He stopped at my next-door neighbor's door to nibble at her bushes. He was not more than 20 feet from me and I was even able to grab my binoculars that I carry in my purse for a closer look. He was so close I could see the patterns of his fur. He would occasionally glance in my direction but seemed curious rather than scared. I just kept hoping he would come closer.
My across the way neighbor decided that was the time to leave the house and he raced off into the woods with his white tail up. I sat in the car long after she had left with the hope that he would return. He didn't and I finally went in. Jeff had thought I was angry with him since I'd been sitting out in the car for so long. But I could have waited longer. I have unlimited patience when it comes to animals. What a great end to a busy day.
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