Fawn in the Grass

"To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe."
--Marilyn vos Savant, American columnist

Today, while I was out in the backyard chatting on the phone with my sister, I happened to glance over the fence into the glade, and spotted this perfect little fawn lying quietly in the grass! Instantly enchanted and amazed to see a fawn up so close, I gasped and started to run through the various possible scenarios as to why she was there: Was she lost? Was she sick? How old could she be? Where was her mother, had she died? Had this little baby deer been abandoned?

Adding to my concerns, a series of gunshots had echoed through the woods earlier in the day, so, naturally, my mind raced to the worst possible scenario - was this an orphaned fawn now in need of a mother? My maternal instincts instantly kicked into gear - should I climb over the fence and bring her into the yard? Should I call Chris and ask if we can keep her?

Fortunately, as I was going through this myriad of emotions, my sister was on the phone lending a voice of reason to my maternal hysteria. Hearing my pleas that somebody needed to step in and take care of this little baby, she calmly suggested we leave the deer in the woods and immediately go out and buy a puppy instead. Next, she started to run through the other, more rational, possibilities of what might have happened: Could the mother have left her while foraging for food? Had the baby wandered off and the mother was now frantically searching for her? If either of these two suggestions were true (which, even to my frantic brain, did make sense), then it was imperative we leave the little fawn exactly as we'd found her in the long grass.

The most fascinating thing about watching her was that she never moved. No matter how close we came to the fence, sometimes getting only a few feet away from her, she never moved an inch. It was uncanny. My initial thought was that she didn't know enough to be afraid, but you would think her instincts would kick in, causing her to flee. Instead, she just watched us warily and remained perfectly still.

So we left her there, checking back on her every hour or so until darkness fell. If she was there in the morning, I told my Dad, I was determined to do something. But when dawn came, the little fawn was gone, and my Dad insisted that we assume the most positive possible outcome - the mother had come back and retrieved her baby. (He also assured me there was "no sign of foul play" at the scene, which did make me feel better about maintaining a positive outlook on things.)

Shortly afterwards, my friend Lisa told me she had found a baby fawn, alone and unmoving, in her backyard a few years ago. Having the same reaction I did, she called the police and asked what she should do. They instructed her to leave the fawn alone and told her the mother was out foraging for food and would return to get her. Not believing them, Lisa kept watch until she did, in fact, see the mother return to claim her baby. Apparently, it's very common for mother deer to leave their babies hidden in a safe place (somehow conveying to them not to move a muscle), so they can go out and find food, returning several hours later to collect them. Needless to say, this eased my mind greatly and I immediately called my sister to tell her the happy news (I also informed her we were going to hold off on getting a puppy for the time being, to which she sounded relieved - on both fronts!)

The best part of the story for me is that Mama Deer felt that our little glade out back was a safe place to "stash" her newborn while she went foraging for food. I guess the next best thing to keeping this little spotted baby for myself is having her mom visit our backyard and leave her little fawn in the grass.