Tonight my race training schedule prescribed a 30-minute walk, so I decided to walk the nature trail behind the school. On my way back through, when it was beginning to get dusky out, I startled a deer which leapt away from the trail. I stopped and stood still, and so did the deer, about 20 feet away from me behind some bushes. I very slowly moved till I could see the deer clearly and she could see me, and we just looked at each other for a long time. Eventually she became comfortable enough with my presence that she began to graze the undergrowth, though with each bite she would raise her head and watch me, and now and then twitch her tail.

We stood there like that for about 15 minutes, until it began to get too dark under the trees for me to really see her, and also the mosquitos got the best of me, so I slowly moved down the path, and she went back to her dinner.

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