Gary came in wound up, people, off the WALL wound up.
He had seen a mysterious animal walking across a road. This is the road usually frequented by the deer, but of course many deer were shot during deer season.
"So it was a deer?" I asked.
"No! No! It had like a mane on its chest. I thought it might be a bobcat. But it looked like a small horse."
"Was it closer to a cat or a horse?"
"A horse! And it walked like this." (Gary minced about, picking up his feet but with a little extra kick-hop. I know. The camera was not close by.)
"Horns?" I hoped the answer was yes and he would make hand horns and then mince around.
"There were no horns." (Damn) "And it had really short legs, that's why I thought it was a bobcat."
I revealed a possible answer. I'd just heard a news story that Missouri was going to replenish the elk population. It seems Missouri elk are extirpated, or "locally extinct." The government plan is to kidnap some northern elk and move them to southeast Missouri, where they will all become born again or beer drinkers.
But then! On further investigation I found the elk diaspora won't happen until spring of 2011, so unless it was an escapee from Lone Elk Park, chances are low it was an elk.
Then I pulled up a photo of a baby reindeer. (Below top: a young elk, bottom: baby reindeer.)
"That might be it! A baby reindeer! Those Damn Republicans."
The "Damn Republicans" are just the residents of the nicer subdivisions surrounding ours. Nicer houses? Much be rich, and rich = Republican. (Gary's been a little dogmatic lately.) So, the rich neighbors allegedly bought a baby reindeer for the Christmas season, petted it, then heartlessly cast it out on the road to make its way back to the Arctic. (Democrats would support that free-loading reindeer forever.)
So, I'm at a loss. Gary is torn. He says it could be the elk, except the legs are too long. He's leaning now toward the reindeer. Both are equally implausible.
My vote is, a Newfoundland dog with mange.
Posted by: Becs | December 14, 2010 at 05:25 AM
Miniature horse? Pony? OMG UNICORN??!!!!!
Oh wait, you said no horns.
Posted by: RockyCat | December 14, 2010 at 02:51 PM
I'm guessing it was a pony that someone was hiding for Xmas but when the groomer came to do it's (chest) hair before the big day; it got out and is now roaming the neighborhood.
Posted by: Amy_in_Stl | December 14, 2010 at 05:41 PM
Unicorn with a retractable horn!
Please inform Gary that not all Republicans are rich (see: my house), Republicans have no particular fascination with reindeer, and Republicans would have insisted the reindeer work at a petting zoo rather than steal from the gardens of neighbors.
Posted by: Caroline | December 14, 2010 at 07:35 PM
Becs-at first when he said "mane" I thought it was "mange."
Rockycat - a cross between a mule and a unicorn? A unimule? They are sterile so they wouldn't have horns.
Amy in stl-could be a mini pony. I didn't know they were pony-scaped.
Caroline- I know you aren't one of those tea party reindeer enslaving republicans. Gary just gets worked and I'd rather it's directed at republicans and not me.
Posted by: TheQueen | December 14, 2010 at 11:33 PM