Thomas Lee Boles

Deer Companions: a True Wildlife Story Thomas Lee Boles

Deer Companions includes several years of observations and experiences at a deer farm. The reader will be introduced to a herd of several dozen white-tailed deer, become closely acquainted with several (and their human caretakers), and even see a little of what used to be called natural history. The nearest likeness to the author's experience is the proverbial traveler to a distant land who becomes adopted into an exotic tribe. We will see the herd's social structure, as it were, from the inside, and acquire a jealous, but very devoted, sweetheart. (That's her on the cover.) The author has seen this happen to several other people but, after extensive research, can find no published mention of it. The picture doesn't do it justice; no one else can see the look in Sugar's eyes when she does that. There is also an extensive appendix describing habitat and herd manipulations in all fifty states of the Union to "enhance sporting opportunities"-multiply deer populations for hunters' benefit. This puts away any claim that hunting is about population control.