Playing Possum

Rev. John Loper and friend Elton Grisham were returning home to Hueytown, Ala., from a hunting trip when they came across a deer beside the road that had been hit by a car. “I told Elton, Let’s just take it on home,” Loper remembers. “I’ll skin it out and take it to a processor. We can use the meat.” They loaded the limp body into their truck and headed out. But while they were driving, other motorists started honking at them — the deer had revived. “It stood up there like a golden retriever on a joy ride,” Loper says. As they arrived at the church, the deer bolted. “I told Elton that any deer that had that kind of tenacity and strength to live, I was going to let it go.” (AP) ...Well, it was either that or shoot at its backside from the church lot.