That’s Bloody Marvelous

As some of you may know, my major in college was Wildlife Management. After school I got a job at an Environmental Consulting firm down here in Virginia. Although it was only a tiny portion of the job, one responsibility was to help control the massive overpopulation of deer in our large wetland banks. To do this, a group of four of us – all legal, trained and certified – would do night hunts. For those of you that wonder what we did with the deer after they were killed, have no fear; all meat was donated to Hunters For The Hungry which helps feed those less fortunate.

On one particular night a few years back, we finished up at about 3:00am. Because we clean the deer in the field, we often get a little bit of blood on us. Okay, actually a lot of blood. After leaving the site, we decided to stop at a 7-11 to pick up some drinks. All four of us were wearing dark clothing. All four of us had blood stained cloths, blood all over our hands, and a bit of blood smeared on our faces. We pretty much looked like we just slaughtered a small village. The Indian fellow behind the counter froze as we walked through the door. He started to shake. He didn’t say a word. As we shopped around the store chatting with each other, a couple of us *might* have said a few things like “man, that dude will NOT mess with us again”.

He checked us out without making eye contact. He was superbly freaked out. Mission accomplished. Homeless people got fed. The deer population was improved. And the Indian teller had a great story for his family (or maybe the cops?).

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