What the. . . ?

So Keely was barking earlier than 0'dark 30, so I didn't get up to investigate. At a more reasonable hour, she was out sniffing a small tree that had been broken off during a wind storm we had a while ago. I went out to see what she was doing, and on my way across the damp grass I saw out of the corner of my eye what looked like a giant slug. On second glance, I realized it wasn't a slug at all, but some sort of crustacean. I got a jar and, after Keely helped me find it again by almost getting her nose pinched - because it tried to hide in the grass, I picked it up to show Noah and Ben. It seemed to have some eggs tucked under it's tail, at least that's what I'm telling myself it was under there!! I didn't know what else to do with it so I took it out to the woods and put it out as close to the stream as I could get it.

Then, I went to the garden to see what kind of damage all the recent rain had done, and I believe I found what Keely had been barking at so early in the morning. There were tons of deer tracks in through the mud (and my lettuce). 2 or 3 of the strawberry plants had many of their leaves munched off. Do they not have enough wild food to eat? Oh well, I guess that's the price we have to pay for stealing all their land.