[Old Grump]

I have but it wasn't a game. When I worked for All State Insurance Company in Northbrook Illinois a small buck wandered from the forest preserve and somehow got onto company property. Somebody had left the gate open to the cooling tower enclosure and he had gotten himself into the pit.

We called the police to send their animal control people and they had a private contractor who dealt with wild animals to come out. He had the loop stick but couldn't get close enough to snag a leg. As the only ex-farmer/cowboy on the maintenance crew it became my job to secure him long enough for the "pro's" to get their loops on him. Got him on the second throw around his antlers and I immediately let go or he would have drug me all around that pit like the farmer did in that old E-mail story. Couple more tosses and I finally got a rear leg, more luck than skill.

Got him snugged down to a valve on a 4" pipe and they came in and secured his legs and then tried to carry him up the metal steps to the back of their truck. It shook one leg loose and the boss of the outfit hung on and ended up with a dislocated shoulder. I managed to get the leg secured again and the deer onto the back of the pickup and tied down with his partner holding the head while I tied the legs. Bossman went to the hospital and I took his partner and the deer a mile down the road to the forest preserve and released the deer. Didn't seem to be a bit grateful either.

On the basis of that experience I can believe the sequence of events in that little tale could have happened just the way he said it did.