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In 2001 Jessica and I took the required hunting class to get our hunting license. I did not think at the time that she would actually ever really go hunting with me. During youth season that year she asked me to take her out. I was shocked, but was extremely excited about taking her. We went to her uncle’s farm and sat in the woods overlooking the field. We had been out there for a few hours and the warm sun made me tired so I told her to tap me on the head if she saw something. Next thing I know she is tapping me on the head. I looked up in time to see two deer running across the field and into the woods. We sat there for a little while and heard something behind us. Just to the right of us a turkey came out in front of us and walked around a bit. We sat there and watched it for a while before it finally flew off. That was all we saw that day.
The next day we went to the other corner of the field and sat. We didn’t see or hear anything the entire time….Until we got up to leave. There was about a 5 minutes left before the sun was completely gone. As we were walking back along the edge of the field I noticed a deer on the opposite side of the field. I took the binoculars and told her to sneak out there a little bit to get a good shot. I sat down on the edge of the field and watched her slowly walk towards the deer. The field was completely flat except for the hunter and her prey. I’m not sure why, but the deer completely ignored her walking to it. She stopped about 75 yards from the deer. She lifted up the gun and sighted on it. She stood there for what seemed like an eternity before lowering it. As she did this, the deer jumped in the air a foot or two. To my shock, he started eating again. Even though she had a perfect shot, Jessie started walking toward the deer again, trying to get closer. She got about 50 yards from the deer before she finally startled the deer enough to make him leap into the woods. Jessie was bummed and slowly walked over to where I was at, still sitting, watching everything. As she got to me I asked her why she didn’t take the shot. Her response to me was “I thought it was a stump”. I asked her if she saw it jump and she replied hesitantly “yes”. We picked on her about that for a little while.