The Mystery of the Ghost Deer

It sounds like the title of a Nancy Drew book, but it is actually a true story.

I will give you a little background.

We have a deer problem. They love to invade my tulips in the spring and our garden in the summer. We had a very sad garden last year. We had beautiful watermelons growing and I went out one day to look and see how they were doing and ALL of them were half eaten. This year we decided we were going to go to battle against these pests. The deer had then same idea. Back in February the kids and I watched a heard of 12 deer hanging out in the yard behind ours. Some of the deer were busy training, running as fast as they could and leaping three hurdles (horse fences) one after the other. I tried finding my camera to take note on this, but it was MIA. They did this over and over.

To save my tulips I sprayed them with deer spray. This did save them this year, but the smell was horrendous and I had to do it every two weeks. My kids wouldn't get near me after spraying the yard. We probably kept quite a few solicitors away too. I didn't want that spray near anything that I would eventually put in my mouth, so instead we decided to reinforce the fence to prevent them from getting into the garden. Along the back of the yard we have a 4 ft. horse. Daryl lifted it up higher so that there was a gap between the ground and the bottom of the fence. We were told to watch to see if any deer got in the yard. One day I looked out and there were two deer in the backyard. As soon as I asked the kids to scare them off, I realized it was probably a bad idea, because I didn't know if they came over the fence or if they had made it by going through the front yard. One of the deer cleared the fence no problem, but the other one landed right on the fence and got his head stuck in it. He was finally able to wiggle himself out and somehow got out the the yard, but I didn't see how. Daryl went back to work the next weekend to find a way to keep them out. He created what we like to call "Fort Glazier", long tree branches weaved through the fence to create a fence double the size.

So, onto the story. Last night I saw a lone deer grazing behind our fence. Usually the roam in multiples. I figured he couldn't make it in the yard, so I went back to putting clothes away. About 5 minutes later I looked out the window and there he was in the backyard. I went out to chase him away with the kids following me. I told them we needed to take it slow so we didn't startle the deer and cause it to get hurt in the fence. Plus I wanted to see how it exited so we could figure out how to reinforce that area. Ryan scared it a bit and it started to run, but slowed down when it got to the fence. Madisyn and I were about 25-30 feet away from it when it appeared to slowly walk in between two of the tree branches on the fence.

Me: "Madisyn is the deer on the other side of then fence?"
Madisyn: "Yes"
Me: "There must be a hole in the fence".

The deer then turned to look at us and then turned back and quickly ran up the hill. I went over to the fence to see if there was a hole. No hole. The deer did not jump, nor did it bend to crawl under the fence, it simply walked through the fence without evening causing the sticks to move. We are a bit confused at what happened. Daryl was gone to Ashlyn's game at the time and of course does not believe us. Madisyn is scared that if it can walk through fences it can walk through our house.

Is it the ghost of the deer that got impaled on the fence behind our house on Ashlyn's birthday? Is the deer a trained illusionist? Could it be a simple solution of Madisyn and I needing glasses? Or was it the Harry Potter patronus? The mystery continues.

The two sticks (about 1 1/2 feet apart) that the deer walked between
without causing the fence or sticks to move. See, no hole!