Bambi vs. Police Cruiser

There are tons of deer crossing signs all over Georgia and here in Peachtree City, we have more than our fair share of deer. Being from South Florida, I am fascinated by the little Bambis and have been known to pull over to the side of the road to watch them eat on the golf course. I've seen them walking down the side of the road, crossing through the parking lot at Publix, walking across a residential street, and ironically, laying dead directly underneath a deer crossing sign - no joke!

Today was definitely my most disturbing encounter with a deer since we moved to Georgia. I pulled into the church parking lot at Southside and noticed something laying on the ground across from my car. As I got out of the car, I saw that it was a deer, bleeding pretty badly from the head and lying dead in one of the visitor parking spaces. (insert your witty line here about the deer dying to come to church!)

I walked into Waumba Land (our preschool ministry) and found one of the pastors and asked him if he knew there was a dead deer in the parking lot. He explained that the policeman who directs our Sunday morning traffic was sitting in his police cruiser, drinking his coffee while waiting for his traffic shift to start. Suddenly, a deer ran out of the woods and directly into the side of his parked cruiser. It shattered his rear windshield and rear passenger window and left a pretty huge dent. (By the way, this is one of my biggest fears about living here - yes, I love Bambi, but I love my car even more!) He said the deer was hurt, but ran back into the woods before the officer could get out of the car. "Well," I said, "the deer ended up in one of our parking spaces." He and some of the parking team guys immediately went out to cover the poor animal and take it away before any of the preschoolers saw it.

Our preschool director told us that her husband hit a deer once, pulled over on to the side of the road, put the deer's head in his lap, and petted it until it died...I had a bird fly into the front of my car once (as in the front bumper) and I went home and cried about it for an hour.

Ever have a vehicular encounter with any of our animal friends???