Hey Rudolph, make way for a piebald buddy

Over the last few months, we have noticed an unusual deer in the woods near our house.

At first, we thought he was a goat because his hair is mostly white. We thought he might be an albino, but after doing a little research, we decided that he’s probably a piebald deer.

A deer that is piebald, which means of different colors, may have small patches of white or may be almost pure white with small patches of brown hair, according to worlddeer.org.

Our deer is in the latter category. Maybe I shouldn’t call him our deer. Our neighbors might think he’s their deer. Perhaps I should call him our neighborhood deer.

Apparently, others have seen piebalds this year, too. Our sister paper in Erie, Pa., recently featured a story on one. Plus, a friend said another one has been sighted locally.

I’m using a masculine pronoun to describe this deer, but I don’t know the deer’s gender. It could be a she. Perhaps to be on the safe side, I’ll use the pronoun it.

Each time we see the deer, we breathe a sigh of relief that it hasn’t been hurt or harvested.

Not that any hunter would want the deer; it seems like the runt of the group. We don’t think it has grown much in the last few months. Speed is not a strength, either.

When our neighborhood herd of deer travel from the woods to the cornfield or from the cornfield to the woods near our house, the piebald always seems to be in the back.

He’s small, slow and a little awkward, but he sure is cute. He’s also quite curious.

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We have a lighted artificial deer in our yard. It’s beside a tree decorated with lights. We thought the lights on the tree and the lights on the artificial deer might be slightly unnerving for our four-legged friends, but apparently that’s not the case, at least not for the piebald.

Perhaps the lights keep the deer at bay at night, but during the day, the decorations don’t seem as daunting.

On a recent afternoon, we saw the piebald deer tentatively approach the artificial one, pause, take a step closer, take a few steps to the right, pause and then take a few steps to the left.

It was as if the piebald was looking for a playmate and finally found one that was just right — same size and color, and one that wouldn’t outrun him.

I tried to get a photo, but couldn't get a good angle through the window pane. I knew as soon as I opened the front door, the piebald would escape to the woods.

It was enough to watch his antics. It made me think of Rudolph and how he didn’t fit in with the other reindeer but still had a special purpose in guiding Santa’s sleigh.

Perhaps Santa will need a deer that can reflect the city lights with a luminous coat.

If we don’t see the piebald deer on Christmas Eve, we’ll know it is on a special mission.

Lisa Tedrick Prejean writes a weekly column for The Herald-Mail. Send email to her at lprejean@localiq.com. Follow her on Twitter @Lisa_Prejean.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Hey Rudolph, make way for a piebald buddy