Come and knock at our door, we've been waiting for you......

Around 11:10am this morning, William and I were busy playing with his race track on the kitchen floor. I heard a small knock on my front door, but didn't think much about it because it sounded like the wind just brushing up against the glass. It happened again, so I looked up and to my excitement, I saw one of our friends from the forest. He/She just stood there with her nose touching the glass door, hence the "knock." Being married to a deer hunter, I pride myself on knowing what to do when a deer comes to your door. I immediately froze and hoped that William would do the same. He did, eyes WIDE open and hanging onto my leg for "deer" life. Luckily, the camera was within reach and I was able to snap this picture before the deer turned and went on her way. When she did turn around, she took her time going up the hill. William went to the door pointing his finger and said, "ooo, ooo" (his version of hey, check this out). The deer looked back at him a few times and that was it. Dan isn't sure if the deer is a boy or a girl since it didn't have any antlers. But for now, I am going to call her "Penny" since she was intrigued by William's pin wheel and watched it for about a minute before leaving us.

Some background information: We are an end unit of a townhouse row and our closest neighbor to the right is a beautiful wooded area I refer to as "our national forest." We have all kinds of friends up in those woods who occasionally come down to our porch area. There's Marden the box turtle, Mr. Fox, and the deer family, most recently, Penny. Marden, bless his heart, is the sweetest box turtle and it had been 2 years since I last saw him. I have wondered about him from time to time, and then while I was out of town, Dan snapped his picture at our door. I was thrilled to know he was going strong! Most of the time, Mr. Fox is just running by which is how I'd like to keep it. We've seen Penny and her family come down from the woods to eat, but what made this visit so fun was that she stayed at our door for a good 1.5 minutes. Usually, they just hear you or another noise and bolt for the trees. This was also the first time that one of the deer actually knocked at my door too. Just so you know, I NEVER go outside to visit these creatures and I would NEVER take William out there to hang with them either. They are wild animals who just happen to be my neighbors and we enjoy seeing them with a glass door between us. We don't feel scared or unsafe living near them. They keep to themselves and we'll sometimes go months without seeing any of them too.