There Was a Fawn in Our Garage

Yes, there was a fawn in our garage.

Aaron was outside with Maggie and Gracie while I was helping Leah with her homework and shower.

Maggie came out of the garage and in a non-alarmist way told Aaron that there was a baby deer in the garage.  That was quite a big deal seeing as Maggie is pretty much afraid of everything.

I asked Maggie to tell me how she found it, so here's a 29 second video of what she thought when she found it.

Baseball mitt, deer.  Potato, potahtoe :)

So, here's the sweet baby deer.  

I'm going to refer to it as a she, because, well, we've only ever had girl babies, so it's habit :)

I did a quick couple of searches and apparently fawns bed down like this when they are scared.

She doesn't carry a scent yet to keep her safe from her predators.

She's likely a week or 2 old and is probably still nursing, because she still has her spots.

She's so beautiful!

Her mama was probably off looking for food or something.  I also read that sometimes the mommy deer don't want to be by the baby so that her smell doesn't rub off on the baby which would draw a predator's attention.  <3

We've had a deer in our yard a few times the last day or 2, so I'm guessing maybe that was the mom.  It's weird to me that we've had deer in our yard, because we definitely live in town.  But, "as the crow flies," we're close to a park that has a lot of wooded area.  I think with the road construction in the area, the wildlife may be a little spooked.

Anyway, I kind of thought that we shouldn't touch her because then the mom might smell people scent on her and abandon her.  Aaron said that's a myth about birds.  He grew up on a farm and has an environmental science degree, so I figured he knew what he was talking about!

Aaron pet her first...which kind of gives you scale as to how little she is.

The girls were curious.  Although Gracie was equally happy to dig in the dirt.

Leah was the first one up for petting her.

She loved it!

And Gracie could not be stopped!  I think she would have put the fawn in a dress if she would have thought of it ;)

Maggie wasn't so sure about petting it at first.

But, she went for it...

and was super happy to have Aaron right there during the whole thing!

The girls then conferred about giving her some grass/dandelion greens.

Gracie was ready to feed her!

She didn't want any, but Leah and Gracie enjoyed petting her again!

We were afraid that she'd be kind of confused in the garage...I mean, our garage is a wreck so I'm pretty much confused when I'm in there and I'm not a baby fawn.

our friends loaned us the wheelchair when Gracie broke her leg...a year and a half ago.  Oops!

So, Aaron picked her up.

He said she was really light and it felt similar to holding a cat.  I think it's super adorable tough that Aaron knows about cats because they had so many barn cats when he was growing up.

He took her out to the woodsy/thicket area on the side of our yard

and set her down.

She was gone when he checked 20 minutes later, so I'm assuming she's safe with her mama now.  

I like a happy ending...even if it is for a deer!


In case you missed them, here are some previous posts:
Perpetuating the Mommy Stereotype
A Great Day to be Alive
Project 365:  Week 19
The World's Best Snickerdoodles
10 on 10:  May