March is Cruel

    My car spooked a whitetail deer. The animal raced ahead of me, unable to jump over snowbanks.
    What was the deer doing on a road? I suspect the creature was exhausted from walking in deep snow. Its hooves were sinking in.
    March is a cruel month. By that point in winter, deer have burned through their receives of fat. Weakness takes hold. They’re vulnerable to starvation and predation.
    Sometimes I hear a pack of coyotes howling at night. Deer must shudder at the sound. Coyotes have paws. They don’t sink into snow all that much. It gives them an edge. A deer struggling in snow would be hard pressed to elude a pack of coyotes.
    In nature, a bad ending for one animal is a happy ending for another.