A Fawn in Our Meadow

It was going to be another hot day. I came back from my morning walk (which I take EARLY these days to beat the heat), grabbed a watering can, and walked around watering things in the yard. I have a bunch of plants on Dexter's grave, and lots of it is coming up now. So I went to water all of that, when suddenly a small, spotty creature went running!

I realized instantly that it was a fawn, and I started backing away, and sweet-talking it. In a minute or two, I was far away enough that the little deer felt brave again. It walked back over to its spot by the square cement planter (a pretty good hiding place) and lay right back down.

Of course, I ran inside for my camera, and I brought it quietly to the edge of the backyard and took about seven photos before sneaking back away. The deer looked healthy and alert and very spotty! The place the mama had selected to put it for the day was a good one: in a shady and quiet area, nowhere near the road.

This is what the mama deer does each day. She goes out to feed, and parks her fawn(s) somewhere for safe keeping. Later in the day she comes back and gets it/them. In the afternoons, we have seen several deer walk through; the day before, we saw two adult deer and a fawn (most likely, this one).

What they don't tell you, though, is how this sort of event will make you feel. It was like a great big fist reached into my heart and squoze it, and it pulled the biggest SQUEEEEeeeeEEE feeling out of me. SO CUTE! SO TINY! GAHHHHH!!!!!

I also felt like Charlton Heston in that scene from the movie Tombstone, where Kurt Russell, as Wyatt Earp, is going off to try and kill Johnny Ringo (even though he knows he can't win), meanwhile Doc Holliday is lying there dying in bed, looking something awful.

Heston says something to Wyatt, to the effect of: "To get to him [Doc], they're going to have to get through ME!!!" Yes, being entrusted with the care of this itty bitty little one made me feel very protective! Watch out, Mama Bear is on duty!

And then, a few hours later, I checked, and the little deer was gone. Mama had come and claimed it, and they were reunited, walking around somewhere together in the woods nearby!

The song for this little deer is this one. Because NOTHING, no NOTHING is going to harm this little one on MY watch: The Pretenders, with I'll Stand By You.