My brother’s cabin is deep in a narrow, forested valley in Lower Austria, not far from where I was born. The gravel road leading up to it winds its way along a creek coming off the mountain. It’s the last cabin on that road. The nearest neighbor is a kilometer to the entrance of the valley. While sitting on the cabin’s porch with my brother, I met that neighbor. He’s a father of a large family who works for local railway maintenance and likes to wear American trucker caps. We chatted a little, and after he left my brother told me the story of the decorated buck.
One morning around Christmas time, the game warden knocked on the neighbor’s door and asked if he was maybe missing his Christmas lights. He stepped out, and as the warden had said, the lights were gone from his fence. The game warden then said that he had found them wrapped around the antlers of a buck. The buck must’ve been provoked by the blinking lights and attacked them with his antlers, only to get entangled. The game warden spotted the decorated animal on some snowy field the next morning. Unfortunately, the story didn’t relate if the lights were battery powered, so I don’t know if the deer was illuminated throughout the night.
Nehaveigur 