The Ghost Deer, The Monster, Your Dream Buck, whatever your name for him every hunter has one.  A deer, a deer you only see in the off season, wether it's by trail cam or accident, or while scouting.  You always see a deer that is to good to be true.  Sometimes it's the light or the angle, but when you see the buck later, he's not as good as you thought he was or worse yet he is no where to be found.  For 2 years I let my Mule Deer tag for my home ranch go to waste because of a deer I lovingly called Mufasa.  Anyone who has kids knows that Mufasa is the Lion King, or King of the Jungle.  Since we don't have lions in South Dakota (or jungles for that matter) this has been my Mufasa.  I've lost sleep over this deer, I've polled my neighbors after the season to see if anyone has gotten him.  But after the season is over I spot him again loud and proud as ever.  This year has been different, I haven't seen Mufasa and I've decided that he has moved on to a better place or someone's dinner table.  This leads me to today's story.  The last few years while I've been hunting Mufasa, I've been hearing stories of a Whitetail roaming the area, a 24" or greater whitetail that hangs in the high sage hills of the ranch.  Now anyone who knows my place knows this is Mule Deer country, we don't have whitetail, the ones we do have are lost.  But this summer I saw him, just once and he stared at me from about 75 yards as to point out that he was sure I couldn't shoot him.  I went back to the spot many times after that and no Whitetail.  I decided he was a ghost deer, a figment of my imagination.  I have had a hard time getting pumped up for deer season.  My annual trip has been cancled because of my wife's due date (I know how could I plan this any worse).  I hadn't seen anything close to home worth shooting except for the Ghost Whitetail that I saw months ago.  That was until tonight, the wheat fields around here are really greening up, I decided to park my pickup on a high ridge to see what I could see.  5 or 6 lost whitetail does about 2 miles away came out of a low lying creek bed, across a prairie hay field and into a nice stand of winter wheat just before sundown.  I kept watching to see if any bucks would show up and sure enough a couple young fellers followed the same path about 5 minutes behind the does.  Thinking this was all I would see, I watched them graze for about 30 minutes until I was sure I would lose enough light to see that far through my optics.  I started the Hemi and was about to turn for the house when out of the trees and across the hay field walked a heavy bodied monster.  Now width and points were impossible to measure from my vantage point over 2 miles away, but this deer was a monster, he out weighed the other 2 bucks by at least 100 pounds.  He walked slowly and deliberately, he took a different path than the other deer, sticking to the shadows as best he could only exposing himself when he had to.  This buck moved like an expert, like an old man with years of wisdom and tons of experience.   Needless to say I'm pumped up about hunting again, I hope he lives up to expectations and I hope he follows the same path when the season opens.  I also hope my new child stays with his momma for at least 2 more weeks so I have an early season chance to bag this guy.  If I don't you will all laugh at this story and tell me I was seeing things.  May you all have your own Mufasa to keep your heart pumping.  God has given us something to be passionate about and we should not take it for granted.