D'oh! A Deer! A Female Deer!

On Friday, as the boys' stepdad, J, was driving home he noticed a dead deer in the ditch. The deer was covered in crows. As he drove by, something caught his eye. He pulled over and went in for a closer look. He figured maybe the deer was still alive and, if so, he would put it out of its misery. As he neared the deer, he spied a tiny, little fawn curled up next to his mother's head. J scooped up the baby and brought him home.

After speaking with the Conversation Officers and consulting the good ol' internet, J and the boys' mom have come up with a care plan for little Lucky. They feed him 3oz of goat's milk, seven times a day. While they are feeding him, someone else takes a damp paper towel and gently wipes his bum (to stimulate him to go to the bathroom). He sleeps in a comforter on the floor in the corner of the dark master bedroom (because they prefer the dark). In the morning, Lucky follows the boys' mom around the house, bleating and waiting to be fed. The success rate of fawns living without their mother isn't very good - if the fawn lives passed three weeks, it will be doing wonderfully. If it lives passed three months, it has an excellent chance of surviving.

On Sunday when we went to pick up the boys, I got to meet Mr. Lucky. I was blown away at how tiny he is...his body is the size of a small house cat, while his legs are longer than twelve inches!! He looks more like a baby giraffe with those gangly legs! No wonder Bambi couldn't keep it together on the ice :-) Lucky stood up and wandered over to me, where he nibbled on my fingers for a minute and gave me a good sniffing. I was instantly in love! I'm sure rooting for this little guy to make it!





As a size reference, the boys' mom (who's holding Lucky) is only about 5'5" and maybe 115 lbs.