I hit a deer on the way to work on the Clinch River near Clinton, Tennessee. I was working the night shift, relieving Anne. There were two twelve-hour shifts there. The back way into Clinton is a curvy winding country road. There was little traffic in the late evening hours.

I was driving along in my 2002 Toyota pickup not paying a lot of attention to my surroundings. Suddenly a doe deer jumped out from the ditch and tried to run across in front of me. I hit her with my right front fender. I stopped almost instantly and got out to survey the damage to my truck and to look for the doe. She was dead lying in the ditch. I saw that I could proceed on. The smashed fender was not against the tire.

When I reached the first gas station at the edge of 1-75, I turned in to call a wrecker and the Highway Patrol. I also called to say I would be late for work because of the accident. Anne showed up a short time later. She told me that I didn't need to worry about getting to work. My shift had been canceled. Anne stayed with me to wait for the police. There had been an accident on the highway so it took a while for him to get to me. The wrecker arrived before the police. He pulled out my fender and said I was good to go.

When the officer arrived and took my information, I asked if I could keep the deer. He said I could. Anne and I went back to look for it. There it was still in the same place I saw it after the accident. Anne helped me load it onto the back of my pickup and we headed for home.

It was very late when we got home. Anne parked her car so her headlights shone on the deer in the back of my pickup I brought a sharp knife from my cabin and returned to the deer carcass.

I remembered to cut just below the joining of the ribs. When I opened her up, a fully developed baby fawn fell out. I felt bad about that. Our next task was to get the doe's carcass into the barn and to hang It from the rafters. We did that and left to go to bed.

This happened in June 2008. The deer couldn't hang very long because of the warm weather. I found a butcher on Maynardville Highway who would process the meat for me. I took the doe there the next morning.

It was hard to eat the venison knowing a baby faun had died in the process. I wasn't much for venison. Anne definitely didn't like it. Venison here in Tennessee has a strong wild taste. They feed mainly on acorns, not field corn.