Yesterday, while bush-hogging around the creek, I accidentally flushed this young deer from it’s hiding place. He/she ran off about 50 meters, then circled back and laid down in some tall grass not too far away. I stopped working in that area, in the hopes that Mama would come back and claim her fawn. Well, she did come back, looked around, made a strange call from less than three feet away, but didn’t see him/her!
I waited and waited, but Mama never came back again. I have no idea how old this deer is, but its too young to eat on its own. Finally, I remembered Liz from The Scene has donated and possibly volunteered with these people, and I reached out. They immediately called back, and gave me some instructions. Unfortunately, I had to dismiss the idea to leave him alone all night, since he had been in the grass for over 12 hours with nothing to eat or drink. I drove to a Pharmacy and picked up some Dextrose-water, and some formula. With a syringe, I was able to get some fluid into him and he perked up quite a bit.
Supermousey decided she would sleep next to him last night, and offer more water or food to him at 2:00 a.m. We are all pretty accustomed to taking shifts caring for an animal, as some of you will remember our prize mare died right after giving birth to Aras. We spent an entire Summer getting up every four hours or so and bottle feeding him. I’m not sure where this is heading…I feel terrible for almost running him over with the tractor. If this little guy makes it, we’ll keep y’all informed.
Note: In the picture, Grandma’s cat looks to be thinking he has happened upon the world’s biggest mouse.
