I’ve always been a friendly dog.
Wherever I go, I meet new people and animals, and we always become fast friends. Usually, my friends are pretty average – dogs, cats, ferrets – animals that you would consider “pets.”
However, I met one animal a few weeks ago that’s much different than all the rest. My human calls it a “deer.”
We don’t hang out that often, but when we do, we’ll just sit next to each other for hours and hours. Whenever my human brings me to this field, my friend is there waiting.
I should give her a name. What’s a good name for a deer?
I know – Dottie! Dottie the deer! I call her that because she has small dots on her fur coat. At least, I think that’s fur. My fur is pretty long and thick, but hers is much shorter.
Dottie and I don’t really talk. I don’t think that she can speak dog, and I certainly can’t speak deer. But, even with the language barrier, we know each other pretty well.
In fact, once I found out what Dottie was, I started doing a little research. So now I know a lot of things about her! At least, about her species. Things like:
- Female deer are called does, while male deer are called bucks. You can tell the difference because male deer have antlers and females don’t.
- The plural version of deer is still deer. I would have thought to call them deers, but apparently, that’s wrong.
- Deer have four-chamber stomachs to help them chew and digest grass. This digestive system makes deer very similar to livestock animals, such as cows, sheep, and goats.
- Deer are excellent swimmers. I didn’t actually have to look that fact up – there’s a small pond in this field, and I’ve seen Dottie swimming in it a few times. I’ll take a dip too when the weather is really hot, although my human doesn’t like it. She says that I smell too much like a “wet dog.” Well, that’s what I am, aren’t I?
- Because deer have eyes on the side of their head, they can see up to 310 degrees in all directions. At first, I was confused by that statement, so I had to learn that there are 360 degrees in a circle. So, deer can almost see everything around them at all times! That’s pretty impressive.
I hope that Dottie and I can stay friends for a long time. She’s near and “deer” to my heart.
