A pair of unlikely friends are setting an example for their community.
“It really and truly is special,” said Bob Riley, of Princeton. “I look out there and think, you know, human beings can learn from animals. They tolerate each other, and they know they are not going to hurt each other. They are like ‘okay, I can share my space with you.'”
Riley’s border collie Kora has been friends with a local deer for three years.
“They lay in my backyard together about once a week, or whenever the deer happens by.”
The two have been ‘hanging out’ for some time.
“The doe used to bring her two fawns, and they’d come through the yard,” he recalled, explaining one of the fawns showed a real inquisitiveness about Kora…When he got bigger he would come on his own.”
Riley, a lifelong hunter and outdoorsman, stressed he does nothing to attract the deer, and even went so far as to contact Conservation Services to make sure he was doing nothing wrong.
“The other day the dog wasn’t outside, and the buck actually walked up to the patio door and looked in. I don’t know what he was doing, but I’m assuming he was looking for Kora.”
Kora and Buck, as the deer has been named by Riley, will spend up to two hours in the backyard together, on any given day, usually lounging about 15 feet apart.
“A border collie, who is trained to herd animals, sits out with deer – it’s a crazy thing to see.”
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