DALE – “You’ll see them work their way down the hill,” said Paul Phelps. “Then if they see you they come right in.”

Phelps was talking about mule deer. He was standing outside the Dale Store, 65 miles south of Pendleton on Highway 395. His parents, Charlene and Butch Phelps, own the store.

Feeding the deer has been a tradition at Dale for many years. About a dozen of the critters live in the immediate area. The residents call many of them by name. Rosie is probably the best known. She has a distinctive split in one ear, so she’s easy to identify. Charlene Phelps guessed that Rosie is about 12 years old.

“That seems old for a deer,” Charlene Phelps said, “but we’ve been here three years and she was well-known when we came.”

Charlene Phelps feeds the deer day-old bread from the store, and other treats like popcorn or alfalfa pellets. She and her neighbors feed the deer all year round. They take pictures, too.

“We’ve had hunters stand right there and get their picture taken with Rosie,” Charlene Phelps said.

Deer can get to be a problem if they get too comfortable around people, cautioned Mark Kirsch, wildlife biologist for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. Both deer and elk can become aggressive if they get too accustomed to humans.

“We’ve gotten several calls about feeding deer,” Kirsch said. “People want to see them do well.”

The deer are popular with visitors to Dale. One season some hunters brought apples for the deer. Then in October, after hunting season ended, the store got a big package addressed to “Rosie, Dale Store.”

“It had her photograph on it,” Charlene Phelps said. Also inside were more apples.

As long as they stay in the Dale area, the deer are relatively safe from hunters.

“We hunt, too,” Charlene Phelps said. “But when it’s not hunting season we just like to see the deer.”