Return of Roger

Last summer, Jason and I enjoyed our "pet" deer (a deer that seemed to spend lots of time in our yard) so much that we named him Roger.  You can read more about Roger here and here.  This year, Roger returned and though we now know that Roger is a "she" rather than a "he" (hard to tell last year when he was a baby), we're sticking with the name.

Before you skeptics speak up and say "How do you know it's the same deer?" trust me, we know.  First of all, most of the deer in our yard (and there are usually quite a few) come in groups.  Roger is always alone.  Those deer are skittish, constantly whipping around their heads and running off at the slightest noise.  Roger seems to feel at home in our yard, taking his time, not seeming phased by anything.  He even sometimes finds a shady spot in the bushes and lies down for a while.

Here's a few shots I took through our window a couple of weeks ago.  Our back yard is not very deep.  To give you perspective, Roger was maybe fifteen feet past our back deck in these pics.

Last weekend, we had an exterminator come out to check on some stuff.  Even though the man was outside checking vole bait boxes, Roger just stood there, maybe twenty feet away from him, staring at him.  Tuesday night, Jason and I watched Roger while we cleaned up the kitchen after dinner.  We watched him graze in the back yard for a while, then followed him as he walked around to the front yard by going from window to window.  If he looked up at us, we didn't stand still or hide -- we waved at him and said "Hey, Roger!"

What?  He's our buddy!