Lori Jones works in the giftstore at Horsetooth Inn and RV park, in Fort Collins, Colorado. The store is in a nature preserve, so running into wild animals is nothing strange here – but this meeting really stands out.
Lori tells how the deer wandered into the store, just like any other customer.
“It was hilarious. She was looking at the sunglasses and the chips. I was laughing so hard,” Lori tells The Dodo.
This particular deer is quite well known around the preserve. She’s the matriarch of one of the deer families in the area and is well-known to local residents. Many people, including Lori, have seen the deer family a handful of times when they make their way to a nearby field to graze.
However, the momma deer has never stopped by to go into any of the buildings before – or shown any previous interest in shopping.
Lori Jones, who assumed that the deer had got a little lost, decided to help her find her way out by coaxing her with a peanut bar.
Then it was all over – or at least, Lori thought it was.
But it turns out she was wrong.
“About 30 minutes later, here comes the deer again with her whole family,” Lori says.
“I’m in the office doing inventory, and I come out to find her there. This time she brought back her twins, and this one young buck that she adopted.”
However, Lori says she made sure the kids waited at the back door.
“They were just looking in the doorway like, ‘Can we come in too?’ I said, ‘No’. It was so funny,” Lori says.
We never got to find out what the deer mom wanted to say when she came into the store, but we can probably guess that it had something to do with Christmas gifts. Or maybe it was just the peanut bars calling to her.
Luckily for the deer, a peanut bar became the solution once again, as Lori used one more to coax the deer family back out of the store.
Afterwards, Lori clapped her hands to scare the deer back into the forest. Lori describes how she called out ‘Take your children home’ as the deer ran away.
For Lori, the unexpected visit is a special memory that she will keep for life.
“It was just a lovely thing to see, the wild animals that live in this area are really something special,” she says.
Share if this wonderful momma deer and her children made you smile – and forget about all the Christmas stress for a little while!
Published by The Animal Bible. Please like.