Yep, you gotta watch out for those four legged creatures
Lots of them around here and I've had several close encounters - one just last week.
Like your incident, they crossed the road well in front of me so it wasn't a close call as some have been.
I once had an encounter with a moose that was within arms length. That close it looked as big as a house
This is just my own way of thinking and doing things, but I never start up a bike and let it idle unless I'm going to ride it and my bikes sit for nearly six months over the winter.
Maybe it's "the old days" way of thinking, but moisture is introduced into the exhaust system and doesn't burn off unless you ride it and get the system very hot.
That leaves moisture in the system to sit and start corrosion - especially the muffler which isn't stainless steel inside.
Over the years I've seen many mufflers with the bottoms rotted out from trapped moisture.
Anyway, that's just my opinion.