Hi folks, for my second MAH column I decided I should follow up my skunk whisperer column with one about a fawn whisperer, since this is the time of year when fawns are appearing and I have a story I think you'll enjoy.
Last Thursday at breakfast my wife Susan looked out our dining room window and noticed a tiny, nearly newborn fawn walking around in our yard and lying down curled up almost invisible in the grass. No doe around. Neither doe nor fawn should have been around as our house is surrounded by a deer fence. However, when we took a walk around the fence perimeter we found a section broken out from the inside.
We figured no way was the doe going to try coming back inside the fence to get the fawn. So we went out into the yard and Susan laid a towel over the curled-up fawn and picked it up. She carried the fawn out and put it down on the ground outside the fence. This whole time the fawn was completely docile, not moving a muscle, though we noticed it had started to breathe faster. Being still and quiet in the face of danger is clearly an ingrained fawn survival tactic.
About 100 yards away, over near our neighbor's house was a doe that the fawn had somehow noticed. Could it be the mother of the fawn? The fawn got up and bounded over to it. Whew. Hopefully this was a successful reunion as the fawn must have been still nursing and would not have survived on its own.
We'd been away for several days before Thursday, and guessed that the doe and fawn got in through a fence gate blown open briefly by the wind. The doe was able to escape through the fence, but not the fawn.
Somewhat coincidentally, we learned our friend and neighbor John had just seen 2 newborn fawns jumping around in his yard. I have to say that if you have a choice, fawns are much more fun than skunks.
Kurt