…where the deer and the antelope play!
Well, the deer at least. We haven’t seen any antelope. And truthfully I just had to google antelope to see exactly what it is. It looks to me to be a deer with horns. But if you want to get real particular it’s “a member of a number of even-toed ungulate species”. I’ll take Google’s word for it. I guess Liam isn’t the only one who is going to have to learn his animals.
Matt had told me that there are always deer in the field beside the condo but yesterday during breakfast we were in for a treat. Five or six deer walked down the length of the fence and climbed under the next fence to the field behind us. Liam was having a blast looking at them through the window. You’d think he was at his own personal zoo. “Look, Mom, deer!” (And, yes, he’s taken to saying Mom a lot of the time….what!?!)
We explained to him that if he wanted to see the deer up close he was going to have to be really quiet. A true challenge for him these days. Out the door, him and Matt went to see the deer. And, much to my surprise, the deer didn’t run off. They looked up, stared at them and kept on grazing.
And now Liam seems to think that there will always be deer standing out there any time we walk outside.
Right after the deer-sighting, we headed off to see some grizzly bears. That’s right. Grizzly bears. We had found a Groupon to the Montana Grizzly Encounter and it sounded like a perfectly eventful time.
In my mind, it was going to be like Lazy 5 Ranch in Mooresville, NC or driving through Yellowstone where you see the animals roaming in their own space. It is a Rescue and Education Sanctuary after all. Now, looking back, I guess driving through open land with bears roaming all around does seem ridiculous but that is what I had in mind.
So I was a bit disappointed when we showed up and it was like seeing a bear exhibit at any zoo in America. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed watching the bears, but the “encounter” was no different than anything else I’d experienced before. I did learn some things while there though.
- You can tell black bears and brown bears apart not by their color but because one has a hump on its back and one doesn’t. The problem, though, is I can’t remember which is which.
- If you meet one kind of bear you should be really loud to scare it off. But if you meet the other kind you should divert your eyes and remain calm and quiet. Again, the problem is I can’t remember which kind of bear to do which action.
So, maybe I should go back and listen a little closer…or take notes! I can see it now. I’ll meet up with a bear out here and my brain is going to go a million miles a minute. Does the bear have a hump? Yes. Or is that just back fat? Ok. Hump means brown bear. No! Black bear? Ok. So, that means I scream loud? No. Remain calm!
Have no worries. I’ll study up before I head out in the woods alone with Liam. Just kidding! I have no plans of being out in the woods without Matt anytime soon…if ever.
