To the Trooper who assisted DD#2,

Thank you so much for taking the time and having the patience to deal with our daughter as she dealt with having hit an 8 point buck with her car Saturday night. She was having possibly one of the worst weeks of her relatively young life!

Just a week earlier she turned 20, and it had poured rain all day on the day of her party and a scheduled bonfire party had to be moved indoors. So they rescheduled it. During the week, her grandfather fell again and was hospitalized. Then she found out that she had to work the closing shift on Saturday night.

At 11:50 p.m. she and two friends were making her way down the road to her party when 3 deer ran across the road. She slowed down, they were running left, so she pulled as far over as she could to the right. At the last second, the buck decided to right back right. She nailed him with her passenger fender. It took out her headlight, bent up her hood and made the car not driveable.

After calling her BF, who was less than a mile away, she called a Deputy, who in turn called you. You were there quickly and turned what could have been an awful night into something tolerable.

You joked with her about hunting season and the appropriate weapon to use for deer (a car not being on the list), you explained that CR244 has been getting calls pretty much every night about deer getting hit, and you assured her that it was not something she could have avoided.

But honestly, the best thing you did for her came when one of her friends asked if DD#2 could have the antlers from the deer. You said sure and asked her if she had anything to remove them with? When she said she didn't, you brought out a hunting knife and cut them off for her.

Thank you, thank you, thank you! You totally reminded her that DPS Officers are human, some of them hunt, and some of them have a wicked sense of humor. She needed something positive to come out of that week and you provided it.

Grateful Mom