Deer invades West Fargo home

An unruly guest crashed a West Fargo barbecue this past weekend, leaving behind a broken window and a bloody mess.

Jon Blair said his 14-year-old son, Steven, was swimming in the inflatable pool behind their house about 4:30 p.m. Saturday when he saw something big and brown crash through the lower-level window of next-door neighbor and friend Dave Chezick's bi-level at 1013 15th Ave. W.

Chezick said he was in his garage blowing up an inflatable pool mattress for Blair's daughter when Blair came running by "saying something about a deer in my house."

At first, the 47-year-old truck driver thought it was another one of Blair's practical jokes - that is, until he opened the door to the house and saw a young-looking doe emerge from his spare bedroom.

The animal ran into the laundry room, and Blair went inside the house to block the doe from running upstairs and causing even more damage or hurting Chezick's elderly dog, Max, who's going blind and deaf.

Chezick confessed that what Blair did next is something he probably wouldn't have done.

"Jon kind of grabbed hold of it," he said.

"It got the adrenaline going," Blair said.

The deer kicked to break free and jumped through the same window, breaking more glass on the way out.

"It got me pretty good in the shins," Blair said.

The injured doe leaped over several fences, some as tall as 6 feet, to escape the area, the men said.

West Fargo police were called 10 minutes later about a deer lying on the boulevard at 13th Avenue and Second Street East. Officers decided to euthanize the badly injured deer at the scene, West Fargo Assistant Police Chief Mike Reitan said.

Blair's actions didn't come as a total surprise to Chezick, who recalled one time when Blair tackled a Doberman pinscher that was chasing after his cat.

The deer left bloodstains on Chezick's walls and carpet but otherwise didn't cause much damage besides the window, he said.

As for Max, "I think he pretty much slept through the whole thing," he said.