THE STAND OFF!
All was good and right in the world this very fine fall day, dog mom Mary took Onyx and Hildie to everyone's favorite park to hike and play, the sun was bright, the air cool, Hildie found a fellow young dog to play zoomies with, Mary found a nice hooman to talk to, and Onyx busied himself teaching said hooman how to throw his tennis ball really far into the field. That hooman had a pretty goo arm so Onyx got to spend a long time sniffing out the ball after each toss, he loved getting "absorbed in scent", getting lost in the joy of "nose". As her fur babies played Mary interrupted her hooman conversation every so often to check in on them to assure everything was still "happy", it was upon one such visual check in that she was so shocked she did a cartoon style double-take! Onyx was way out in the field "lost in nose world" searching for his tennis ball, totally unaware of the largest buck deer ever seen slowly sauntering across the field towards "the intruder". Yes that big ole guy had decided no mere dog should be tarnishing his territory... he was gonna chase him out! Mary had no idea what to do, yell "look out?" She decided first priority should be to secure Hildie, called her and put her on leash...there...one safe...now, what's going on over in the field? Well Onyx was still lost in nose world looking for that ball, and that buck was getting sooo close...closing in to just a few feet away! While still wondering what to do, Mary saw the scene change: SCENT of the buck finally wafted into Onyx's nose, he froze and with nose still down where he had been looking for the ball, he slowly shifted his eyes up an met the gaze of the buck. Both froze... time stood still. The stare down continued, and a small change started to occur, Onyx started shifting his stance forward, and the buck started shifting his stand backwards. Upon some unseen cue the tablue exploded forward; Onyx (who considered himself a wolf) lunging towards the buck and the buck wheeling on his hindquarters for escape across the field into the neighboring woods. As they raced away Mary, with Hildie on leash pulling her on, ran to follow. Crossing in front of a narrow peninsula of woods three other large bucks lept up to join their monarch in retreat...four huge deer with a "wolf" behind them were now thundering through conservation land. Mary envisioned the probability of an innocent band of bird watchers getting trampled cringed, and ran (calling "come" all the while of course) faster after the menagerie. Then... lead deer proved why he was the herd monarch...it wasn't just size, it was smarts! He wheeled towards a long deep swamp and took everyone in; seems he knew he and his gang would be able to run and splash through those waters while that darn would-be wolf dog would be forced to swim and loose all speed and momentum. Much to Marys' relief and undying gratitude the maneuver worked, Onyx lost enough distance while swimming that he was finally able to hear his mom calling "come" and finally turned around and came back to her. An exhausted trio then walked back to the car... with Mary grateful no bird watchers had been trompled, the deer got away, and resolving her pack was safe to romp and play (while practicing recall) another day.