On our way back from Christianburg, Amy dropped me by Turman-Yeatts to pick up my Wrangler and then followed me home. As we topped the hill on Harvestwood near Sandy Flats Road a deer jumped out in front of my car. I braked to miss it as he bounded into the field on the other side.

“Thank goodness,” I thought. Too many collisions with deer in this county, especially at night. When I reached Harvestwood, I noticed Amy’s Liberty was no long following so I turned around and headed back.

The Liberty was stopped and she stood in the road, crying.

“The deer hit me,” she said between sobs.

“You mean you hit the deer with your car?”

“No. The deer hit my car.”

After crossing the road in front of my car, the deer wheeled around and headed back across Harvestwood, running head on into the driver’s side door of the Liberty, leaving a dent just above the moulding.

“Did I kill it?”

I didn’t find any blood or deer alongside the road. We headed home.

Our insurance agent tells us we were lucky. Collisions with deer are common in Floyd County and the rest of Virginia. Local musician Bernie Coveney totaled his car when he hit a deer on New Year’s Eve.

When Amy’s car gets out of the body shop I’m going to put a deer decal on the door. Four more and she’s an ace.