There were a few deer standing in between the approach threshold and the numbers. The crazy part was, their color so closely matched the color of the runway, that I didn't see them until I was right over the top of them!
Those Michigan deer, I tell ya...all black with big yellow numbers on their side. Usually you can see them coming in a parking lot or on a football field. But on a runway...they just blend right in. I've always lucked out and got the ones with X's on them instead of numbers, and just assumed the runway was closed...
In San Carlos, AZ, we used to chase the joggers off the runway in the early morning hours or evening just after dark, before we could land. Mostly hospital personnel getting in some exercise, I think. Sometimes they'd get off to the side, and then get back on the runway and jog again after we went by on the low pass. Put on some headphones to listen to music, and they never heard us.
At Chinle, several of our airplanes hit horses one year. Frequent dog packs (carried a handgun for those) on the runway. A bull in our path in New Mexico once. A few locations horses and riders and horses, and once a skunk. Lots of coyotes. The only thing I ever hit were birds, and possibly once a deer while working a wheat field down low. (I know I saw it poke it's head up right in front of me, but don't know what happened to it).
You did well to walk away; airplanes are beer cans with wheels, and don't take well to striking things at any speed above that of molasses.
