Deer and Cows in the Road!

I must say - in the last couple weeks there have been two very surprising animal encounters while driving in my car...

1) It was Friday, the 23rd of Sept, and I was driving "home" at dusk on a county road near Clearwater.  Now, the stretch I was on is very straight, and somewhat hilly, and usually driven around 55 mph... So I was driving up to the top of a hill, and just as I was about to descend something (big) caught my eye in the road.

Immediately -- and totally instinctively -- I pushed the brake down hard. As my tires skidded on the asphalt, I saw this object was actually a deer. As I skidded towards it, the deer scrambled away. And in a second, it's over. I release my brakes and resume driving, and I see in the rearview mirror there's a second deer crossing the road behind me (as if nothing had happened).

Here's a couple pictures of the skid marks!

2) Monday, Sept. 26th, in the late morning sun, I was driving to work on another county road near Clearwater. I was rounding a curve, and just as I came around I saw 5 cows standing in the road! Right in the middle of the road...

We're talking large, black and white polka-dot cows :) Unlike the deer, none of them would move out of the way. So I rolled over to the shoulder and glided around them! At one point I was about 10 feet from a cow, and he started running with the car! Luckily, it was alongside me, and he stopped pretty quickly.

Driving away, I looked back one more time at these cows, and there was another car slowly approaching them.  So I think quite a few people saw them, and what an amazing thing to see!  Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera w/ that day - I'd really love to have some pictures of this.