Tuesday was a terribly sad day here for us.

It started in the morning. At around 8.00am, Husband and I were in our kitchen and saw a man wandering in our yard. H went outside to see what the guy was doing and found out he works with the city and was looking for a deer that had reportedly been hit by a car on the street that runs in front of our house. Husband explained about the family of deer that had been feeding in our garden in the summer and the guy said he knew about them; apparently their existence was common knowledge in his circles. He said he was looking for an adult female deer and she was, most likely, the mother in that family. He didn’t know how badly she’d been injured by the car but he wanted to find her.

A couple of hours later I walked outside to take out the garbage. As I rounded the side of our house that faces an adjacent football field, I saw a man marching into the field holding and aiming a rifle. It was such a weird sight. I figured he’d found the deer and I looked to my right, toward the forest, to see if I could see her, too. A shot exploded. I turned and there, about 15 meters in front of me, I saw the deer---our mamma deer---on the ground. She was moving. A second shot blasted and I saw pieces of her head fly backwards and her legs roll up into the air.

I looked at the man, he looked at me, I dropped my trashbag and ran back inside my house, crying like a child.

I hate the road outside of our house. It was one year ago this month that our little kitty, Harry, was hit and killed on that road. The speed limit is 40 kilometers per hour (25 miles per hour) but almost everyone drives faster than that; I often see drivers overtake those who are following the limit.

But even if everyone drove slowly and carefully, accidents would still happen. Animals and roads are a horrible combination. And since humans are not going to stop building roads and driving on them any time soon, this shit is just going to keep on happening.

Husband and I saw the two young deer run through our yard just this morning, so we know they’re still alive and still together. Do they know what happened to their mom? Do they look for her? I wish I didn’t care so much.

RIP Mamma Deer. We feel privileged for the time we spent with you.