For a Calgarian city slicker like myself, seemingly tame wildlife is always a novelty.

I remember my excitement as a child around seeing wildlife enter into my habitat. “Look, a squirrel on our front lawn! Come look, what are we going to name him?

It is safe to say I have always been a little too enamoured by wild creatures and all together too curious.

Then I moved to Lethbridge where deer are as common as alley cats.

This leads me to last weekend in Waterton National Park.

According to the Waterton Lakes National Park, wildlife regulations state that, "No person shall touch or feed wildlife in a park or entice wildlife to approach by holding out. . . foodstuffs".

Perhaps it would have helped to know this was actual law prior to the unfortunate stream of events that occurred this particular Saturday.

So as the story goes, my friends and I pulled into a deserted parking lot in Waterton.

Now of course, there happened to be a male mule deer on the grass directly in front of us.

You can probably see where this is going.

I figured I would play it safe first. I looked at him from a distance and then tried to touch his nose with the tip of my outstretched mitten.

He didn’t rip the glove right out of my hand so I did the next illogical thing; I pet him.

He was gentle and tame, so much so that all my friends decided to join in on the fun.

So there we were, all five of us, and a deer with very large antlers chumming in the parking lot.

We didn’t think for a second, this is a bad idea, this is a harmful decision or this is illegal.

Trustingly, we walked a few steps away from our furry friend.

We turned our backs on him.

Imagine our shock and excitement when we turned around to find he had approached us.

My only thought before turning back around was, “oh, he likes us.”

Then in a blur of events, the deer veered his antlers down.

I felt a prodding at my back and grabbed onto the sharp bone-like stems and went for a ride into a tree.

 All I remember is an awkward sense of fear and the feeling of pine needles stabbing me in the face. I remember thinking, “Well THIS is embarrassing.”

I hit the ground hard and the deer continued to nudge me until, luckily, a man in the park yelled and scared off the deer.

Let me say ‘lucky’ one more time

We received a warning from the three wardens that came over to assess the situation, but according to regulations approaching the wildlife is grounds for a charge of up to $5, 000.

Who knew?

According to national park regulations, the environmental, ecological and risky ramifications of something so seemingly innocent as touching a deer, are endless.

Lesson to be learned? DO NOT make the same mistake.

Antler wounds, bites and broken bones are not the souvenirs you want to bring home with you after a trip to the great outdoors.

Something to consider next time you want to make friends with Bambi or feed a little forest critter your PB& J sandwich.