My spiritual teacher, Sri Chinmoy, once called animals “our ancient friends”. I really do feel that way and, in fact, I love spending time with animals. They are so sincere and real and always live in the moment. There is not much of a story to this blog, but because it involves friends from the animal kingdom, I decided to publish it anyway!
A few days ago, my human friends and I continued our tour of Thailand by moving to a new city. I took advantage of the 3-hour bus ride to take a nap and I woke up just as we were pulling into the very long driveway of our new hotel. Groggily coming out of my jet-lagged snooze, I looked over to my right and noticed a deer and a little fawn in a fenced-in pen across the road. With great excitement I blurted out, “Hey, deer!” My friend sitting next to me, unaccustomed to me being so affectionate, gave me a puzzled look! “No”, I shouted, “there are deer over there, look! A mom and her baby!” Unfortunately, we had already passed the mini-zoo and my friend thought I had really lost it.
As soon as I got to the reception desk of the hotel, I was intent on proving that I hadn’t been hallucinating. It is common to see cows and water buffalo in the countryside in Thailand, but I have never seen a deer, so I could appreciate my friend’s skepticism. I asked the lady at the counter, “You have deer at the hotel, right?” And to my great disbelief she replied, “No, we don’t have any deer here. But we have a miniature golf course with lots of statues of elephants, tigers, and snakes.” I was in shock and my friend couldn’t contain his glee at my discomfort.
My spiritual teacher, Sri Chinmoy, once called animals “our ancient friends”. I really do feel that way and, in fact, I love spending time with animals. They are so sincere and real and always live in the moment. There is not much of a story to this blog, but because it involves friends from the animal kingdom, I decided to publish it anyway!
A few days ago, my human friends and I continued our tour of Thailand by moving to a new city. I took advantage of the 3-hour bus ride to take a nap and I woke up just as we were pulling into the very long driveway of our new hotel. Groggily coming out of my jet-lagged snooze, I looked over to my right and noticed a deer and a little fawn in a fenced-in pen across the road. With great excitement I blurted out, “Hey, deer!” My friend sitting next to me, unaccustomed to me being so affectionate, gave me a puzzled look! “No”, I shouted, “there are deer over there, look! A mom and her baby!” Unfortunately, we had already passed the mini-zoo and my friend thought I had really lost it.
As soon as I got to the reception desk of the hotel, I was intent on proving that I hadn’t been hallucinating. It is common to see cows and water buffalo in the countryside in Thailand, but I have never seen a deer, so I could appreciate my friend’s skepticism. I asked the lady at the counter, “You have deer at the hotel, right?” And to my great disbelief she replied, “No, we don’t have any deer here. But we have a miniature golf course with lots of statues of elephants, tigers, and snakes.” I was in shock and my friend couldn’t contain his glee at my discomfort.
“No, no, I’m talking about real deer”, I protested. “I spotted real deer about a quarter mile down the driveway, just before the main highway”. That did it. The lady, obviously under the stress of checking our large group in, got annoyed. Her testy response was, “Look I’ve been working here for years and I can tell you there are no deer here. Those must have been dogs that you saw.” And then to top it off, when someone from the group asked for a map of the area, she handed it to them remarking, “Here, take this map and, while you’re at it, use it to show that fellow over there that there are no deer on the premises.”
The lady was so emphatic that I actually began doubting myself. So, after unpacking my suitcase, I grabbed the only food I could find, a bag of cashews and a couple of bananas, and convinced my photographer friend, Markus, to go deer hunting with me. And sure enough we found the sweet creatures! There were two separate pens – one for a male and two female deer and another pen for the doe and her fawn. I held out a cashew and, to my surprise, the doe came right over and gently grabbed it out of my hand with her mouth. The fawn was frightened at first and ran for cover, but eventually she got curious and came over as well.
After the doe finished off the cashews, I offered her the second course – a freshly peeled banana. I wasn’t sure she would go for a tropical fruit, but she eagerly devoured it piece by piece. Afterwards, she licked the fawn’s face, apparently to give the little Bambi a taste of the exotic treat. Markus took some great shots and I’m looking forward to showing them to the skeptical hotel clerk. I think she’ll have to admit that they are the strangest looking dogs she’s ever seen!
