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PrintWe Fell In Love With A Fawn
The deer had devoured practically everything in our yard. Just about everyone who lives in this area has had the same conversation, “The deer ate all my plants!” “The deer have left the garden in shambles!” “They’ve just ruined the cedar trees!”
We tried everything. Motion sensitive sprinklers worked pretty well at scaring them away. Unfortunately, it also drenched the folks next door when they walked anywhere near our yard!
We tried sprays. One brand smelled so dreadful we didn’t want to be outside, which sort of negated the whole idea of saving our yard and gardens! We put up netting, but after a good wind storm, it blew away and deer flocked in to munch on our unprotected shrubbery.
We became frustrated and downright crabby about the entire situation. Providing a daily salad bar for up to nine deer was not what we’d had in mind when we planted and pruned and landscaped. Deer were the enemy, and we were at war!
Until the day a neighbor called to say there was a newborn fawn in the wooded area between our houses. We carefully approached the spot. It was sound asleep and just as helpless as a kitten. The mother had wandered off, but she returned at dusk. For several days, the fawn stayed in the wooded area, sleeping most of the day while Mama Deer wandered the neighborhood with the rest of the herd.
We were fascinated with this tiny creature. Early one morning, Mama emerged from the woods with the tiny fawn on spindly legs struggling to keep pace. The fawn grew fast, but remained irresistibly cute with big eyes and ears too large for its head. It was a shy little thing, which might be why for several weeks we didn’t see the doe or any of the regulars gobbling up our garden. With a baby to protect, they mainly stayed out of sight and must have eaten their meals in more secluded areas.
For a while, the war was over. We’d get an occasional glimpse of the little fawn, coming and going from the woods with its mother. The deer were no longer pests determined to defoliate our entire block; they were caretakers – part of a family.
By fall, the fawn was bigger. It lost its spots and grew in to its ears. One day, we looked outside and there it stood, all alone. It looked back at us, bent down, and took a hearty bite out of our favorite plant! The truce ended at that moment. We stocked up on stinky sprays and lots of netting. These days, we almost always lose to the deer, but that’s not so bad. One of those hungry critters was our Bambi and at least for a few weeks one summer, we didn’t mind sharing our yard with his family.
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