It's always nice every once in a while to get an inspection job way out in the country. The smell of fresh air, quiet...peaceful. It's just nice to get away. As I turned off the country road onto the path toward the house, I notice a creek, 450 acres of beautiful rolling hills, a lovely home with a very large pond for a backyard that makes me wish I brought my pole. As I park near the house something caught my eye to the left and lo and behold...a deer. Wow, what a great place this is. As I parked and got out, I thought how strange it was that the deer was not running away, but was actually coming toward me. Shocked, I just stood there and it came right up to me with a "you can pet me" look in her big brown eyes. So I did just that. It's one of those moments that you wish someone else was around to witness this strange event. I have petted a deer in a petting zoo as a child, but never a wild deer.

After rubbing her head for a while, I grabbed my tool bag and proceeded to the front door and was greeted by the sellers. "Hey, there's a deer in your front yard". "Oh that's Lucy" explained the man. "She's our pet deer" "You have a pet deer?" He told me the story about how they came to have a deer for a pet. They found it very young and the mother may have fallen victim to maybe a hunter, so they took her in and bottle fed her until she was old enough to be on her own. They then took her way out on the land and let her go, but she would always find her way back, so there ya go...Lucy, the pet deer. It then dawned on me that when the inspection was scheduled, I looked up the property listing and noticed that one of the pictures had what I though was a deer in it at the back porch and I remember thinking what a strange place for them to place one of those fake deer....I had to laugh!

As I inspected the outside of the house, Lucy just followed me around hoping I would take a break from my work long enough to rub her head some more. Made me wonder if you could teach a deer to sniff out termites like beagles can, that would be an attention getter!

Lucky for the buyers, Lucy comes with the property. I'm sure the sellers will surely miss her.

Kent Keith

www.fortworthinspector.com

Fort Worth Home Inspector