I was part of a “Officer Involved Shooting”…

Unfortunately.

About 2 days ago a visitor reported to us that they had seen a deer on the trail that had a badly broken leg and that was looking “bad”. I called the Ranger on duty and he went looking for the deer but did not find it.

Around 5pm today, I went on a round to see if we had any campers, and on my first path, I saw a deer standing near a camp site but did not think much of it as I drove away, but something about it made me rethink what I saw, so I did a loop around and spotted the deer once again and waited…

Yep. I found the deer.

The leg was useless. She did not look like she was in pain, but she did look bad. I called the Ranger on duty and told him I would keep an eye on her until they arrived in 20 minutes or so. I also called Pauline to tell her to put dinner on hold. I was going to be a while.

About 5 minutes after that, the deer started to walk away, slowly, I was no threat… I thought I should go on the other side of the loop to keep her “contained” but of course, I lost contact with her and spent the next 20 minutes looking all over the loop of the campground as well as about a 200 yard radius with a bagillion places to hide.

The Ranger showed up with a guy from the DNR (I think) as well as a Washington State Trooper which was a good thing, as he has a 12 gauge and not just his side arm.

The 4 of us started to search for the deer when I recalled what Tom Selleck said in the “Jessie Stone” made for TV movies that Pauline and I just finished re-watching a few days ago…

“Always go back to the beginning.”

So once again, I started where I last saw the deer, but this time, I fallowed the exact path I saw her take and about a minute later, I spotted her. Not 20 yards from where I lost her. She was really blending into the bush.

I called the Ranger and the Trooper did what he had to do.

There is a county road that goes though the park, its a straight away, so there are always speeders. I lost count how many cars I have seen pass others at a high rate right of speed in front of the park entrance, so there is a high chance she was hit by a car which injured her badly enough that something had to be done.

blah…