"Don't Do It!"

Today I monitored the Cloquet river on this bridge in Fredinburg. I was trying to write down my information but I could not find my pen. I ended up using a magic marker. I was busy concentrating when I looked up to see a lot of action on the bridge. Two trucks were stopped behind me. Three does were on the bridge panicking. I watched in amazement. Then I got out of my car hoping to scare the deer down the right lane to the far shore. A man behind me got out of his truck and told the woman in the white Prius to drive forward with the truck behind her beside her. Mansplainer. The woman yelled she was trying to prevent them from jumping off the bridge. I watched in amazement as one doe leaped over the cement bridge ledge. "Don't do it!" I yelled at a deer who cannot understand English. Her hips caught on the cement and she kicked off with her left leg and flew through the air twenty feet before splashing into the Cloquet River. In case you are wondering, the water was very clear and 50 degrees F. The other two deer walked past me on the left to get to shore. The woman in the Prius checked by getting out of her car and peering down. The deer survived the fall and was swimming to shore. Wow. Suddenly I remembered my mother asking questions like, "If your friends jumped off a bridge, would you jump too? If your friends ate chicken shiite, would you eat chicken shiite too?" Now I know the answer. If my friends jumped off a bridge, I would take the road.