WILDLIFE -- Good news arrived last night from Newman Lake, where my blog item  last weekend reported the sad story of a deer with a Halloween bucket stuck on its face.

"I can report that the deer is doing fine and the bucket is off!" said Diane Sellers, the resident who reported that the whitetail seemed to be starving.

The deer had poked its nose into the piece of trash somebody left outside and the plastic handle flipped back behind its head, locking it in place.

The deer had been coming to the family's barnyard with its two yearling fawns for several days pawing at its face occasionally and clearly unable to feed. Washington Fish and Wildlife officers received the report, but when they responded the deer couldn't be found.

But the deer persisted and finally was able to remove the piece of junk from its face after at least four days.