"We Take Care of Our Deer..."

I've mentioned before that our town has a fondness for its urbanized deer. We don't wage a futile war against them just because they like our gardens. If we're that particular, we fence in the delectables. Otherwise, we share and are happy that the deer are a familiar presence we can watch and enjoy. After all, we're the ones who've encroached on their territory.

I was reminded of this town-wide attitude when I called the City Hall yesterday morning to report a very leaky faucet in the old cemetery - actually two leaks, one of which was slowly dripping into a watering trough; the other, flowing gently but steadily into an old grave, greening its sides but probably not doing any favors to whatever remained of the occupant belowground. (This is not a "Memorial Gardens of Eternal Repose" with carefully manicured lawns and flower beds. This is a wild west sort of rough and tumble place that's parched and brown in the summer.)


I was cheerfully told that the sexton (gee, what an old-fashioned title - I didn't realize people still had a job with this name in the US anymore), who was away till Monday, would be informed about the fast leak. He told me that I should not worry about the water dripping into the trough, as that is for the deer. "We take care of our deer, you know."

Now, that's an attitude I'm behind 100%.