Back to Nature: A THRILLING trip to the library

[Karen Syed]

Yup, I hit the library every day. I check out audios and DVD's. Normally a very uneventful trip, to be sure, but Friday was a whole nother kettle of fish. Well, not really fish. One never thinks that the library is a place closely associated with the creatures of nature, but let me tell you a story.

I'm in the back of the library (DVD section) and all is peaceful--as it should be in the library. All of a sudden, I hear this incredible pounding at the front of the library. BAM BAM BAM! It stops and then happens again. Okay, I know it's not a bomb, because I'm not on fire. THen the screams begin. Yup, multiple screams, someone is yelling "Deer, Oh my God, it's a deer!" Then someone else screams, and I hear, "No, it's a herd of DEER!"

So of course everyone runs to the front of the library and there are two-not so much a herd--of deer who have managed to hit the handicapped button to open the doors of the outer foyer and the doors have closed and trapped them in the foyer. Now these are pretty darn big deer and they are cornered and terrified, not feeling so much like reading. So they rush the inner doors a few more times before turning to the outer doors and pound their way out into the courtyard. Now, the Savage Library shares a building with the Health Department and the Senior Center and one of the FOUR-still not so much a herd--rushed the door of the other side of the building and shatters the bottom glass of the door and gets into the building.

At some point, the deer--poor frightened thing-- knocked down someone in the other building and managed to get itself cornered somewhere in the building.

When I finally left, the poor thing was still inside the building, and law enforcement and animal control officers were milling about the courtyard trying to figure out what to do. I have no idea what the outcome was, but it is the most excitement Ihave EVER had in a library.

[Chris Redding]

Never heard the coyote story, but I'm not surprised by the deer story. Once at a little league game one got his antlers stuck in the back fence. We cleared the kids off the field because he was making awful noises. Someone looped a rope around his neck and pulled him out of the fence. He trotted off as if nothing happened.
cmr

[Karen Syed]

Now see, I was just in Chicago last week visiting bookstores with some of my authors and Luisa Buehler told me the coyote story. I guess it just goes to show you...always be prepared for anything!

[Morgan Mandel]

That's about as strange as the coyote at the cooler in Quizno's in Downtown Chicago.

Morgan Mandel