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Seventeen years ago, my husband and I, along with our baby daughter, Hannah, moved to our new house in Gibsonville, on the outskirts of town in what had been a wooded area.

I remember one afternoon sitting on the front steps as I watched my 16-month-old daughter walk and play around the front walkway.

All of a sudden, from the woods by our house, a large deer ran across our front lawn toward the main road.

I was amazed and somewhat frightened at the sight. It was so surreal. It was a new experience for this city girl from Greensboro transplanted to the countryside.

My daughter doesn't remember the deer encounter, but it is a favorite story to tell her of the time when we first moved out here.

I am sitting here this week without my car from a more recent run-in with a deer, quite literally.

A few weeks ago, my daughter and I were driving up N.C. 100 toward Burlington Road to go to the Food Lion in the Stoney Creek Shopping Center. It was near dusk as we drove to our destination.

We were almost to the Burlington Road intersection when we spotted a deer dart out into the road in front of our car. We missed hitting that deer, thankfully. Knowing that deer often travel in groups, we did not accelerate, but coasted along as we watched carefully for more. Another deer immediately bounded into the path of our car. Despite our caution, we hit it head on.

We heard a loud thump as we saw in the headlights the deer fly through the air before it landed in the ditch on the side of the road. We turned the car around in the next driveway, shaken by what had occurred. We drove up and down the road a bit until we saw the silhouette of a deer in the clearing between the woods and a house. At first, we thought that was the deer we hit and breathed a sigh of relief.

Then my daughter saw it. There was a deer in the ditch thrashing its head around. It could not move beyond that. We saw it was a baby as it still had its spots.

Apparently the deer in the clearing was the mama waiting on her baby. Her baby would not be following her anymore. My heart broke considering her grief as she would began to realize her baby was gone.

My daughter and I drove back into Gibsonville to talk to a police officer about the baby deer. We wanted to make sure that it was cared for, or at least put out of its misery.

A police officer followed us back to the spot where the baby deer lay. By the time we returned, it had died. The officer assured me he would contact the appropriate people to have the deer removed.

Unsettled, we drove on to our destination. We continued to see the accident again and again in our minds.

We were thankful that we were unhurt as we know that many who hit deer are not so fortunate. We were thankful that the deer did not come through the windshield, but went over to one side as it hit the hood of the car instead. We praised God that the only damage was to the hood and grille on the front of our car. Had we been going faster or hit the larger deer, our outcome could have been completely different.

It seems in my unscientific guesstimate there are more deer out and about nowadays, and it certainly puts you on notice as you drive on country roads to be warned of their presence. We've learned to drive more cautiously, knowing how unpredictable deer can be as they run out into the road.

Though deer are majestic and beautiful, I'd rather admire them from afar in a meadow than to experience them right outside of my windshield.

Linda Vestal is a wife, mother, daughter, sister and friend living in Gibsonville. Contact her with comments or story ideas at lindavestal@triad.rr.com.