Deer

There is a a corner of Chicago that looks nothing like Chicago. There are trees. And bushes. And stumps. Marshlands too. And deer - lots of deer. It is called North Park Village Nature Center. I have a shirt that says I volunteered there.

They also have a building there, a "home-base" if you will. It looks just like every other nature center building I have been in. The decorations are outdated and involve the typical antlers, tree bark, and various pelts. It also smells musty and earthy. In the center of the room they put a table with animal skulls and bones so that the children can have hands on learning. They left out the hand sanitizer.

The North Park Village Nature Center is capable of sustaining one to two deer on the land that they have. That would keep it a balanced and healthy ecosystem. Sixty-seven is the reality. There are sixty-seven deer living on a stitch of land just fifteen minutes. from my dorm. I know this because I counted them.

Not all of them. The people on the end got the most action.

We stood in a line spaced fifty feet apart and walked the entire length of the nature center. The grass was taller than me, and the sticker bushes put up a good fight. The medical students next to me tripped and cussed the entire time. Four realignments later we had herded all of the deer toward one end of the park, and when they had no where else to go, they ran past us and we counted them.

Now, before you go getting wild with jealousy, you should know that it wasn't quite the experience you might be imagining. The ground didn't thunder, and the deer didn't bound past us like they do in Pocahontas. No one got trampled, and not a single deer gave me one of those meaningful looks that they show on the nature channel all the time. They just spooked and ran. Anti-climactic much? Brenda had to stay back at the reserve because she wore tights that day and the bushes were scratching her legs. I probably stepped in deer poop. It was everywhere. Sixty-seven deers-worth.

But then again, maybe you should be jealous. How many times do you get the opportunity to go deer counting in Chicago? Or anywhere really. We also got rum cookies afterwards. Yeah, you can go ahead and be jealous.

Here's one of those meaningful looks I was talking about. Chilling.