For a moment we stood frozen, just looking at each other. I had gone for a walk that morning. There was a cool crispness about the autumn air. Suddenly, coming out of a field of corn was a doe and her fawn. I was startled to see them and they to see me. For a moment we stood frozen, just looking at each other.

For a moment we stood frozen, just looking at each other. The deer knock the corn down with their nightly rummages every year about this time. Would-be-hunters want to kill them but I discourage it. The corn costs more and more to produce, and there is just so much one piece of land can give. It is exhausted with trying to compete with sheer production alone. Now the big cities want to buy the area’s irrigating water so their inhabitants can have lawns. If we don’t sell now, they will take it later.

For a moment we stood frozen, just looking at each other. I saw how much we were the same, both vanishing breeds. Both of our ways of life were being hunted down by the ruthless onslaught of incautious civilized man. Both of our freedoms were being crushed by the swell of society creeping into the nooks and crannies of rural life.

For a moment we stood frozen, just looking at each other. Wondering if we both we're wild things doomed to inevitable extinction. Wondering where next we would make another stand for liberty when so few remain.