Fool me once, shame on Deer.  Fool me twice, shame on me.  I can’t believe I fell for the Deer’s tricks again!  For the past few years, I’ve been in an epic battle with the Deer in my neighborhood.  Every spring these delinquents come sauntering into MY yard like they own the place, and proceed to eat the buds off my apple trees.  In fact, last year they escalated the situation by snapping off the branches of one of my saplings.  Now the poor tree looks like a stick stuck in the ground.  I wasn’t about to let that happen to my newest apple trees this spring!  Problem is, last year the Deer tricked me and I ended up humiliating myself in front of them.  I was determined not to let that happen again.  Well, you guessed it, history repeated itself.

Last year I ruined my reputation as a fierce Golden Wolf by doing my victory dance a bit too soon.  I thought I had scared the Deer off my property with my ferocious barking.  So I celebrated by running a loop around my yard, followed by rolling in the grass with Asa.  In reality, the Deer were standing in the tree line watching me act like a goofy Golden.  After that, no matter how loud I barked, or how many times I ran along my fence to scare them, the Deer would just ignore me on the other side.  It was so embarrassing.

During the winter the Deer disappeared for months.  Then spring arrived, and they came strolling back into my yard.  I knew I had to come on strong to show them who’s boss.  I growled and barked in my fiercest predator voice.  I also blocked Asa from the window so they couldn’t see my goofy brother holding his squeaky toy and wagging his tail.  Even Mom and Dad were on my side this year.  In the past they would tell me to stop barking.  But after the extensive damage the Deer did to my saplings last year, they weren’t about to stop me from scaring them away ever again.  Those Deer weren’t going to mock me this year….or so I thought.

Initially my plan seemed to be working.  The Deer instantly froze in fear as I held them at bay from my living room window with my barking.  Next, Mom opened the door and I ran in the direction of the Deer.  As they fled into the safety of the woods, I puffed my chest out and showed them I was no goofy Golden.  They’re just lucky the fence was there, or I would have really shown them my inner Golden Wolf!  I growled and paced along the fence to make sure the threat was over, while Asa happily sniffed dandelions.  He really needs to learn to follow my lead when it comes to protecting our home.

Mom rewarded me for scaring the Deer away by tossing my favorite Bacon Scented Squeaky Ball.  That’s when my plan completely fell apart.  I was so proud of myself for protecting my property that once again I got a case of the zoomies and ran around the yard celebrating.  This time squeaking my toy like a puppy!  Leave it to Asa to ignore my barking but to follow this example instead.  Soon we were wrestling and rolling in the grass together rejoicing in the fact that I regained my status as a fierce Golden Wolf!  That is until Mom started laughing and pointed out that the Deer were once again standing in the woods watching me!  They didn’t run away like I thought.  Dognabit!  The Deer tricked me again!  Maybe they didn’t notice me playing?  Perhaps they were still frozen in fear?