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Like any other morning, Gil Genn went outside his Gaithersburg home Thursday to walk his Chocolate Labrador Yuffie.
However, by day's end, Genn, an Annapolis lobbyist and former Democratic state delegate from Montgomery County, would spend six hours in the emergency room and was fortunate to be alive.
Minutes after exiting his home near Goshen Recreational Park, Genn was overpowered and attacked by an aggressive deer while his wife attempted to grab the dog from harm's way. The buck used its antlers to stab Genn in the back of the right leg, knocking him to the ground, and then pierced him in the upper chest.
"It went in like a bullet," he said of the antler piercing.
Genn tried to defend himself using a broom to divert the deer's attention and run away once he was back on his feet. But the deer charged one more time, goring Genn in the groin, before he immobilized the large animal, enabling him to run to safety while the buck retreated into the nearby woods.
During the incident, Genn said he recalled the death of Australian "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin, who was fatally pierced by a stingray barb in 2006 in the Great Barrier Reef.
Blood poured from the wounds and the deer may have been rabid, but Genn refused to go to the hospital because he had arranged an important meeting in Annapolis with House Speaker Michael E. Busch on behalf of one of his clients that was set up weeks ago.
After some improvised self-treatment to patch up the punctures, Genn was able to attend the meeting and then go the emergency room, where doctors tended to his injuries and advised him to get rabies shots, even though there was no evidence of a bite.
He was released from Suburban Hospital in Bethesda Thursday night with quite a story to share.
"Yesterday was clearly the weirdest day of my life," Genn said on Friday. "I consider myself extremely lucky."
