The night before last, as I stepped outside to round up the girls and tuck them into the coop for the night, I saw something quite magical, something I had never seen before. Under the fading autumn light, the girls were quietly pecking at their day’s last portion of grass, and right in their midst, relaxed and apparently enjoying their company, was a young buck, contentedly munching his share.

As the girls spied me, running to greet me and demand their daily grain ration, the buck straightened up and looked me over. What was going through his mind? “I should run, but the hens don’t seem concerned at all. It appears as though they don’t consider her a threat. I think it may still be safe to stay here.” And so he stayed, for a few more moments, eyeing me up and down once more. He allowed me to continue walking toward the corner of the lawn in which he was standing, right where I was headed to scoop a cupful of grain.

Then suddenly, from behind me, our chocolate labrador retriever, Mousse, came shooting across the grass, barking, kicking up the grass, implementing her rule, and letting that perfectly beautiful young buck know that he was trespassing. He could take a hint. The buck spun on his hind legs and was gone in a flash.

But boy, for a few moments there, it was heaven on Earth.

In memory of Danny Kelly