Saturday, July 7, 2012

Fawn Still With Us

I found this picture on the Internet but it looks just like the orphaned fawn.
I went out to the barn this morning to fill the water tanks for the cattle and feed the yearlings. Just as Bobby, Bramble and Misty came out of the barn to munch on some old deer corn, the little fawn came running toward me from what I think was behind the barn.  It might have been inside the back of the barn and come out of the backdoor, but I wasn't sure.
It came right toward me, very skittish,  and I noticed there was blood on its snout. It skittered around the cattle munching at their feed bunker trying to find a way out.  Then it ran helter skelter for the paddock behind the barn and continued trying to escape. I figured it found its way in, so it would find its way out and I was right, but it took it a few tries.  I wondered if the bloody snout was an injury from trying to get out of the paddock or if a coyote had scared it into going through the fence, injuring itself in the process.  
Finally it managed to push through one of the 12 inch rectangles in the woven wire fence and went flying into the woods.  It hung around a few minutes watching me and the yearlings, then disappeared.  A few days ago I spotted it running through that bit of woods following a full sized deer who handily jumped the fence and disappeared. I wondered if the deer was its mother and if it came back and forth to the fawn to care for it, but with this episode this morning I continue to believe it is an orphan or abandoned.
I was glad to see that the fawn had grown quite a bit in the last two weeks and that it was surviving among the cattle. In a month or so I'm hoping it will be big enough to jump fences and join the other deer. I keep short sided water tubs full so it can get a drink, as the creeks in that area are totally dry.

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