His First Deer

My brother, Jeremy, hunts.  He's been hunting a lot with his bow the past couple weeks, watching and waiting to snatch his deer of the year.

This morning, he caught him.

Apparently he got home with just enough time to wash up before bringing Avery to school, so when Drew and I met them there (as we do every school day --- and Grammy and Reed happened to be with us, too), Avery was anxious to show us Jeremy's deer.

I'm thinking Avery means to show us a picture of Jeremy's deer.

Oh no.  He means to actually see Jeremy's deer.  Dead (obviously).  With the arrow still in it.  In the bed of his truck.

Riiigghhhhtt.

Getting home just in time to wash up before bringing Avery to school means not enough time to unload the deer.  So we got to see.

Let me just preface this by saying my children have never seen anything dead (which the exception of flowers).  Nothing.  Never.  So while I'm a bit hesitant to just show my kids a dead deer in the back of their uncle's truck, I also thought, "well, this'll be interesting...too interesting to pass up."

Jeremy says, "Now I gotta warn ya, boys, he's still a bit bloody."

Awesome.


{For those hunters out there reading this -- the deer had yet to be field dressed, so he's still in one piece.  It's one thing to see a dead dear, it's entirely another thing to see a deer with no guts.}


So everyone looks.  Yep.  Definitely a dead deer.  With a huge arrow sticking out of his side.  There was some blood, but not much.

My reaction:  "Wow.  Look at him."

Reed's reaction:  blank stare

Drew's reaction:  Silence.  I'm pretty sure his face contorted into several different grimaces before Jeremy closed up the bed.

Avery's reaction:  "Drew look at this! {while he grabs his horn to hold up his head}  His tongue is hanging out!"

After school, I asked Drew what he thought of Jeremy's deer.  He said he didn't like it.  Why?  "I didn't like the red stuff."

So there you have it.  Drew's first deer.

And probably his last.