Zane and I were hanging out last night when I noticed a deer out the back window. On a closer look it turned out to be THREE deer: mom, dad, and faun! Not only that they were romping around the yard: dad driving his velvety horns into the ground, daughter/son faun dashing and leaping about, and mom got in a little running around chasing faun and dad.

Zane was just starting to think of being fussy/crying so I juggled him on one arm while trying to pick up and get the camcorder going. The night before I finally remembered to download all of the Zane videos from the camera but apparently didn't remember to turn the camera off afterwards.

Totally dead battery.

Meanwhile the deer were really going to town out there. I plugged the camera into the charger, Zane started squawking, I fumbled with the power cord so there was enough to reach the window and get a shot of the deer, brought it up to my eye...

The yard was empty.

Oh, well, at least we got to see them! (I can't vouch that Zane saw anything) We went back to bouncing the baby around and hoping he might be ready for bed in a hour or so. Went upstairs, opened the back patio door, and the deer were back! At least the dad and faun. I put Zane into his car seat, begged him to keep quiet, and ran downstairs for the photo camera (which was on a tripod from some earlier Zane shots). Didn't have time to change to a faster lens, so I cranked up the ISO (sensitivity) since the sunlight was fading fast.

Picked Zane back up, he was grumbling, and we poked our heads out the back door to take some photos. My arm was killing me so I put Zane back in the carrier and slipped stealthily out onto the deck, as stealthily as one can be with a camera and car seat full of baby. Still just dad and the faun, but after a bit they moved to the other side of the yard and mom joined them. And then the fun began. The light was really dim and I had the sensitivity cranked way up, but here's a few shots from their evening's frivolity.

Btw, the photo at the top of the page was before the fun and the mom/faun photo below it was afterwards.