The Oshkosh Northwestern, bless it’s heart, reports local police activity in both Oshkosh and Omro, the megalopolis down the road a bit. An item in today’s police blotter, wedged between the harrowing reports of citations for harassing phone calls, delinquent dog-owners allowing their pets to relieve themselves on a pedestrian walkway, overflowing garbage cans, underage drinking and the like, came this riveting story-

Responded to a car versus deer accident Friday at Whispering Way and Willow Street. The car sustained minor damage.

That was it. The whole ball of wax. I found myself wondering, of course, just how much damage the poor deer sustained.

This is not a good time for local deer. As if the forthcoming hunting season weren’t enough to worry about, those horny bucks – I mean the deer, not the hunters – are apparently so distracted by the foxy does (and other bucks itchin’ for a fight) that they have a tendency to ignore oncoming traffic when crossing our bucolic highways. The sub-header underneath the headline on the very next page, “Deer-car crashes rise in fall”, said it all: “Mating season in late October to early November can be fatal.”

Ain’t it the truth. Just another heartbreaking fact of life dredged from the police blotters of Northeast Wisconsin.