Have you ever seen someone with a family of deer for pets? Well, neither had I.
That is, until a recent trip to visit family in Belgium. One evening we went to a friends house for dinner. I was amazed to see that his next door neighbour, an elderly gentleman, kept a beautiful little family of deer as pets in a large purpose-built enclosure at the back of his house.
I guess everyone needs a hobby in their retirement. Some more eccentric than others.
They were so tame and friendly. Gathering around to be fed like most cats, dogs or domestic pets would. For someone from England like myself, this was truly a bizarre sight. Deer are very rare and wild creatures in the UK. I have encountered a few in my lifetime in their natural habitat in the wild but they are usually incredibly timid and fearful animals who would run away at the first sign of human activity.
In fact, I have never been as close to a deer as I managed to get here in Belgium in this quaint back garden in a suburban Belgian neighbourhood.
They soon noticed I was lurking off to the side of their beautiful spacious enclosure and got particularly curious as to what I was doing there so wandered over to enquire. They certainly weren't camera shy.
Truly beautiful, majestic creatures and certainly weird and wonderful pets to own :)
Thanks for reading!