Meet “Doe-Boy” and his Friends:

George’s favorite characters in our backyard drama “Urban Wildlife in Forest Hills” are “Doe-Boy” and his deer friends.

Doe-Boy loves to steal food from the bird feeder.  That’s him, or is it her, up on his/her hind legs.  Like the Pillsbury Doughboy, he warms our hearts with his antics.  Doe-Boy and his seven white tailed friends come and go all year round.

Doe-Boy is the only one in his herd that takes the food directly from the bird feeder.  The rest of them are content licking up the seeds from the ground. 

White tailed deer have taken up permanent residence in the wooded areas of Forest Hills and other suburban and urban neighborhoods.  They have lost their inhibitions of humans, and they don’t have to worry about hunters.  There is plenty of food from bird feeders to yummy gardens.

When we first moved into our home, I planted all sorts of flowers and bushes.  The dee

This is a story about urban and suburban wildlife.  It’s probably a story that is repeated across West Michigan from the lakeshore to Greater Grand Rapids.  You can imagine this story happening in Grandville, Hudsonville, and Walker on the west side to Ada, Cascade, and Lowell on the east side and Rockford and Sparta to the north and Kentwood and Wyoming to the south.  It’s a story about how backyard critters can entertain us, and at other times, causes us to cringe.  This particular story is based in the Forest Hills neighborhood in eastern Kent County. 

Part 1 – Meet the Cast of Characters:

My dog, George, loves to watch what’s going on in our backyard.  My husband and I have our TV set; George has his “Backyard TV Set”.  Sometimes the scene in the backyard is a drama, other times it’s a comedy.  George can spend hours watching the “characters” having breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Eating a