A trusting piebald deer; tower messenger revealed

Cape Henlopen State Park's piebald doe, almost completely white, is so trusting now that she can be approached - from a car window - within five feet of where she stands. We saw her Wednesday night this week on a side road near the entrance to the north end of the park.  She was with two other does.  All three of them looked to be stressed, with lots and lots of bugs or growths on their ears.  One of the three, not the piebald, looked rib-counting thin - not in good shape.  I mentioned it to Park Superintendent Paul Faircloth.  He said park personnel had to put a deer down four or five years ago because it was so weakened.  When they examined the deer, they found dozens of ticks, the size of the end of your little finger, on its neck.  It could be that what we saw on the ears of these three deer was ticks.  You can only get so much blood sucked out of you before you get real weak.

Paul also disclosed the identity of the artist who used pine cones and needles to write a prom invitation in the sand below the fire tower that's open to the public. Ron MacArthur captured an image of the invitation with his camera and it appeared on the front page of the Cape Gazette's May 11 edition. "That was my son, Chris. He did it one Sunday after church with the help of his sister, Hannah," said Paul. "I think he already had a yes but he's the romantic type and wanted to make a larger statement. He even left a note at the top of the tower asking people not to mess it up until later that day when he had a chance to show his handiwork to Nicole.

No doubt Nicole Bishoff was impressed.

And finally, here's a picture of the offspring of a rabbit, that we call Ringo, who lives under the pine tree in our front yard . Ringo is either a boy or a girl and he or she obviously found another he or she because we have little Ringos running around the yard.  They hang out in the grass beneath the cherry tree where two families of squirrels have made comfortable homes for themselves in cavities left by falling branches.

I'm sure when the occasional fox comes trotting up our street and Ringo looks out, trembling, from his fort, he wishes he could climb the tree like the squirrrels.

Get outside and have fun and remember that God is love.