An unabashed raid on the produce department

[Clipper]

www.newyorkupstate.com/cooperstown/2017/10/photos_deer_strolls_through_upstate_ny_price_chopper_like_its_no_big_deal1.html?fbclid=IwAR2pGtIySjIvh1OPbrSIan0B6sCUuPwcA3vDfYvPN_f12a0tb0ijk4bCxwE

That deer must think she has died and gone to bambi heaven. Check out the smorgasbord of "deer treats" in the background, just waiting for her to gorge herself. Can you see that glow of sheer joy in her eyes as she stands next to all those bright and shiny apples?

Someone alert the meat department to sharpen their knives while someone slowly guides the deer to the doors of the cutting room. Yep. Venison steaks and roasts, $12 a pound while they last.

Can't help myself. When I see deer, I see thinly slice venison, sautéed in butter with onions on a ciabatta roll, or a venison steak with mashed potatoes and gravy.

Our pup sits on the back of the sofa and watches down the road. Every once in a while she will start barking like crazy and I look out to find that she is barking at a rabbit or squirrel in the woods across the road. This morning she was barking and when we looked out there was a massive doe standing not 50 feet from our front door, ears up, staring intently at the source of all that barking. When she assumed she was safe from the dog, she grazed for a few more minutes and then simply meandered back into the little glade, jumped over the creek and a fence and bounded up the hill through the pasture. We see a lot of assorted wild life here around our house. We have seen foxes, and coyotes across the road, and have had opossums, squirrels, ground hogs, and rabbits in the yard. Before it started to build up around us, a few nuisance rabbits that invaded the garden ended up in the stew pot, and a couple of ground hogs that dug holes in the perimeter of the yard, ended up in a plastic bag on the top of the garbage can. Now there are too many houses in close proximity to fire my 22 in the back yard safely.

I don't hunt anymore so I don't get to enjoy any wild game dinners anymore.

[Clipper]

Oops, in re-reading the article, I see that the deer was actually a buck, not a doe.

[BHU]

In the past few years we seem to be getting a lot more wildlife here in N.Utica. Last winter & the one before we saw deer in our backyard more then once. We also have plenty of rabbit, squirrels, chipmunks, an occasional skunk & even a woodchuck. Coyotes sre what worry me as we have 2 dogs. There's been one spotted over near lock 20 who chased a guy on the bike path. Don't know if they caught the critter or not. Hope so.

[Ralph]

[Clipper]

You often have to wonder how some of the deer incident occur so far from any woods or natural cover. I remember years ago a deer smashed through the window of a store on Varick St. It probably came up from the flats. When we lived in N Utica a deer got hit in front of the house. We lived on Herkimer Rd. across from the convenience store on the corner of Keyes Rd. That deer also probably wandered from the flats, across the Thruway and up our street, although it could have meandered down from the hills of Deerfield also.

There is a lot of wildlife here in our area. We were just coming back from having dinner with friends in Kingsport and as we were cruising along Rt 11 at about 60 a huge turkey came up from the side of the road, just barely missing my windshield and it hit the windshield of a Jeep wagon that was in the passing lane going past me. Shattered the hell out of her windshield. Thank goodness it didn't hit in the middle and go THROUGH the window. It just spider webbed the driver's side near the door post. It startled me when it flew up. It must have scared the crap out of that poor woman.

Didn't they have a deer in the South Utica Price Chopper a few years ago? I seem to remember it was either there or Topps.