According to the experts, pugs don’t make good watch dogs, but Mr. Magoo considers himself a serious guard dog. Here he is, at two in the morning, waking me with soft woofing noises. This is his technique for letting me know that possible danger lurks nearby; low-key, quiet barks that will not draw too much attention to him.
Shushing him doesn’t help. The woof… woof… continues. I listen. Nothing. The dark world outside is completely silent. I sit up, reach down to the foot of the bed—his normal nighttime place—and gently massage his forehead to relax him. Often he barks at the sound of far-off car engines. Maybe that is what he is doing now.
Woof… He is insistent, so I finally pay attention. Well, as much attention as anyone can, having been awakened in the middle of the night from a very sound sleep. I get up to see if something really is invading his territory. In a deep funk and half asleep, I shuffle over to the window overlooking my backyard and flower gardens, pull up the blinds and peer out through bleary eyes.
What I see catches my breath.
A large deer stands not twenty feet away in my flower garden. The sight of this graceful animal in the brilliant light of a full moon startles me. It chomps at what looks like my rosebush which needs a good pruning anyway. Normally, the sight of a deer is nothing unusual; we’ve all seen them dashing in front of our cars, but there is something unique about this view.
A slight motion to my right draws my attention. Below my garden retaining wall, a second deer, larger than the first, lifts its head and with twitching ears, warily looks around while chewing the grass from my lawn. Its head swivels constantly, watching for danger.
There is another movement to the other side where a third deer also nibbles at what appears to be my rosebush.
Since I’ve taken command of the situation, Mr. Magoo no longer worries about danger and has fallen fast asleep again. I, of course, am wide awake, fascinated by the sight of three wild creatures doing what they do in the night.
I watch, mesmerized by the silence and the moonlit scene. The deer’s figures are outlined in black. The lawn and withered stalks of my garden shine white in the vivid moonlight. The silent deer seem like exotic magical creatures as they graze in my back yard.
I am glimpsing a world that belongs to the wild, to deer and other nocturnal animals. Cold. Silent. Dark. Beautiful. Dangerous.
Quietly, I back away from the window, not wishing to disturb this silent and beautiful world and let the deer have my back yard.
When I check in the morning, reality hits. Yup. They’d been at my rosebush.
Leave a Reply