Cats In Clover

  ***

  My early morning peregrinations usually took me to my studio, where I'd drink my first coffee and let ideas for stories and poems roll around in my mind. One morning in mid-May, I headed for the veranda instead. As I stepped out, I saw four deer grazing in Ben's garden. Oddly, they were in a small group rather than spread out among the rows.

  The reason soon became obvious. One deer moved toward the far end of the garden. Nicky appeared from behind the group, galloped after it and herded it back with its mates.

  "Nicky! You're supposed to chase them, not herd them." He ignored me — had he learned that from George? — and I chased the deer away myself. Nicky helped, but tried to round up the deer as they moved across the meadow.

  At least the deer would keep him occupied and at home for an hour or so. Ben's 'guard' dog was everyone's friend and he often tried to go off with people who came to buy eggs, or went visiting on his own. Looking for him had introduced us to many of our neighbors.

  When Ben woke, I described Nicky's herding efforts. "I think you'll need to build a deer-proof fence after all."

  Ben groaned. "I'm not giving in yet. There has to be another way." He walked to the window and peered out at the blue sky. "I'm going to get the pool ready today. It's definitely swimming weather."

  I poured coffee. "If you sold some of the pool components, that would pay for part of a new fence. Might even pay for all of it."

  "We may as well wait until fall," Ben said.

  I suppressed a sigh. If we had a hot summer, Ben would be more than ever in love with that pool and I'd never be able to talk him into getting rid of it.

  Cal came over for coffee midmorning and laughed when he heard about Nicky's efforts to help the deer demolish the garden one row at a time.

  "It's a good thing they have other farms to visit," I said. "If ours was the only garden available to them, it would be wiped out by now."

  "Maybe you should think about raising deer instead of chickens. There's a good market for venison." Cal peered at the bowl I'd taken from the fridge. "Those funny little green eggs from the Araucanas?"

  "Yes and I think we're going to let them raise chicks for a while instead of searching for their eggs every morning. They lay eggs under the blackberry bushes, in the orchard and I wouldn't be surprised if they sneak off down to the forest. They don't take to regimentation and nest boxes at all."

  "They're kinda cute, though," Cal said.