BANGOR DAILY NEWS • January 5, 2021
In mid-November, sometime around 2002, we were called to Portage Lake because two deer were splayed out on the glare ice. I borrowed a 500-foot floating rope from the Volunteer Fire Department. Then I recruited the strongest man in town. With chisels, we worked around the backside of the lake until we were near the deer. I caught the deer with a catch pole and dragged them back to shore. Their ligaments and hip sockets were compromised from having slipped and struggled on the glare ice. I dispatched and field-dressed them in order to salvage the meat. A few years later, a big buck was on the ice. We got hold of that deer’s ears and dragged him to shore. As far as we know, it lived. You win some and you lose some. ~ Jim Fahey worked for the Maine Warden Service as a seasonal dispatcher and game warden from 1990 to 2019.