Shaky

This is a deer I 'shot' last year quite close to home. 

It was a good morning. I woke up early, lingered in bed until the alarm went off, took a shower, made my lunch and with time to spare got in the car to drive to work. Three and a half kilometers further and the morning wasn't so good anymore. Out of the grey wet dusky morning two deer had appeared wanting to cross the road. The one I was driving on. 

I never saw them. Until a flash and a bang. The first minute and a half was spent trying not to cry and getting my adrenaline levels down again. Then I phoned the police and very shakily told them I had hit a deer (I only hit one). Several questions later and I was out of the car trying to locate the deer. I found it, only 25 meters behind the car, laying in the bushes beside the road. 

Anybody knowing anything about wildlife knows that wild animals don't stay right beside the road. Ever. Unless they are hurt. Since I had hit the deer, it was obviously hurt. It did get up in the end, but didn't move far. By then the police had put me through to the wildlife department. 

The man wanted to know where I was and after telling him as much as I could and marking the spot with a reflecting vest, he told me I could leave, I didn't need to stay. I got to work with ten seconds to spare before being late. 

The thing that was hardest for me was the near-exact copy of the French accident. Of course then I was doing 100 km/h (60 miles/h) with a bus and now I was doing half that with a small car. But the flash and the bang were horrid. 

I did debate with myself whether I should work, but I did do so in the end and it all went fine. It was only when I drove home tonight via the same road that my heart was beating in my throat again. 

The fate of the deer? Most likely it was killed and will end up on somebody's plate at some point in the near future.