Posted on 09/17/2005 3:36:30 PM PDT by SJackson
Buck arrives through church window, finds setup not to his liking
Alice Wallace shut her eyes when she heard the loud crash that she assumed was an explosion. When something hit her arm, she figured it was a piece of the ceiling.
A few seconds later, she opened her eyes. Standing on the table in front of her was an adult deer -- antlers and all.
"It's not what you expect at a church," Wallace said Friday evening, still recovering from the shock of the animal's visit Friday morning to the meeting of her poetry club at Unitarian Universalist Church on Sharon Amity Road in southeast Charlotte.
"The deer was up there on the table, scrambling around," Wallace said. "We all scattered."
The deer had jumped through a plate glass window, interrupting a poetry discussion by the five women and two men.
The humans headed for the door of the meeting room, but the glass-covered buck apparently wasn't in a mood for poetry. After a minute or so of panicked scrambling on the table, he jumped back to the floor and left the way he had arrived -- through the window.
"It's amazing he got through that narrow window," said the church's pastor, the Rev. Jay Leach, who said the church suffered no other damage. "That's the first time we've seen a deer around here."
Wallace and another woman were treated for scratches, but N.C. Wildlife Resources Sgt. Barry Rowell said the deer could have caused bigger problems.
"The animal is not attacking -- just frightened and confused," Rowell said. "But a deer can injure someone and cause damage, especially with the antlers."
Rowell said it's not surprising that deer live in populated areas. "They can adapt surprisingly well," he said. "Just give them a small area of woods, and they'll make a home. Sometimes they come out of the woods and panic. That's when they do things like jump through a window."
Wallace said the visit enlivened the poets' meeting.
"I asked the facilitator, `How can you top this next time?' " she said.
"Unitarian Universalist Church "
Had it been a Baptist Church venison would have been on the covered dish supper menu next week.
Thank you, snippy.
Stag party....at a church? Go figure.
LOL!!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.