Editor,

Summer of the fawn: South Whidbey is still beautiful, but it is not the open frontier. It is a community, and living in community requires respect for neighbors; our dogs cannot run loose. We love them and do not easily acknowledge that they are predators by nature and as a pack of efficient killers, even toy breeds. Now is the time of spindly, vulnerable baby deer rightly guarded by mothers who will justly pound any danger to their young to a pulp if they can.

It is a fleeting gift that wildlife are still our neighbors. Most of us live here because of nature’s beauty and the sensitive community that fosters the deer that are her children; honor that (and build a fence if necessary).

Redouble your efforts to escape- proof your yard and supervise your dogs off-leash. Mother Nature is implacable enough; mauled and dying fawns and their mothers as a result of human thoughtlessness is a preventable atrocity.

VICTORIA PELOQUIN

Langley