Something is wrong with her!

    PREFACE THE STORY.   Bow season stank.  I normally shoot at least one doe in NC and sometimes one in VA, but this  year I had a big goose egg.  OK, I had a real good time but I didn't come up with a doe.   I did miss a doe by misjudging the distance.  I also got within bow range of 2 nice eight points (one of which was REAL NICE), but I couldn't seal the deal.   I had been running cameras on and off since the spring.  I had saw a doe with a mass on her face on camera, as well as on the stand.  I had thought to myself that I try to take her this year if I had the opportunity.   The rut had come and gone and I BUCK HUNT during around the rut.   Rut was however a sweet memory, there was a nice buck in hand, and I needed to thin the herd.
     I hate trying to shot does in the late season.  During the bow season, they are allot more tame.  You also see deer around every corner during the rut.  The late season is however a different animal.  The does and even the young bucks are have shot at and/ or are just scared of every movement.  All deer need to eat so I went back to my green fields to hunt the girls.
     I got to the woods an hour from the house and was looking through my backpack.  I starting doing my normal afternoon ritual,  When I went to open the tote with my camo in it, I realized I had left it home!  I wasn't about to go home and not hunt so I got together enough stuff to stay warm.  I went to the stand I had shot my big buck from earlier in the season.   I wasn't seeing a huge amount of deer from this green field this year,  but I was also seeing the doe with a mass on her face.   She knew I was there.  She would come out into the road I had planted, and look up the hill at me and watch me for long periods.  I had tolerated her during buck season but it was after Christmas so her day had come.   I sat that day with little to no activity.  I had saw nothing even though I hadn't been in that stand for almost three weeks  (I thought maybe the camo and scent loc clothing thing was for real, haha).   At 5 though my old familiar friend stepped out down the planted road.  She tried to play the same game that she played out several times over the year and look up the hill.  I let her look at me a little, then she went to eat.  I raised my 7mm WSM and put the scope on her.  I think she caught the movement because she turned to walk back into the woods.  I shot her at about 120 yards and she promptly fell to the ground.  A couple of kicks and it was over.
     The after moments of shooting a deer are always a hectic blurr to me.   You question if you should get down ASAP or take time and sit in the stand.  This was one of those times that you get down and walk to the deer.  I made the walk down the hill and looked her over.   I raised her head as I do either buck or doe and took a long look over her.   If I had it, I would take more appreciation of this moment whether it was  a buck or doe.  I enjoy walking up to them, taking the pictures, and really just enjoying your hard work.  I do however go into machine mode and automatically start figuring out how to load the beast as well as gutting it, so I can get it back home.  I am complaining as I think I rob myself of precious moments as well as dignity I  believe that is owed to the animal.
     This is normally were the story ends and I say something inspiring.  This deer however had huge tumors not only on its face but all over its body. We were taking pictures at home in the light and could see the hard tumors all over here.  Many of them were under her legs and even around her anus.   From questioning others and what I researched on the Internet, the masses were not tumors but rather warts.   They are a sort of viral thing that happens to deer.  I was told by others that meat was OK but I couldn't bring myself to it.
     This was one of my firsts.  Right or wrong, I felt good about taking her out of the herd.  She will always be a memory to me even though she wasn't an addition to the freezer.