Slug thing hiding

The slug thing lives to the right of this photo. He's doing whatever slug things do all winter under the frozen ground. I know that the big boy comes out because I see his tracks running from his hole to the apple tree (center right) and back again.
The deer wander through the trees and sit like statues behind the apple tree. Oddly, they fade into the brush, dark brown dappled with white.
In this same location next August, the deer will share the tree's bounty with the slug thing and...