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A misty September morning |
traveled together. The one mother was ever vigilant and always protective of her twin fawns. The other doe would graze with her fawn and never seemed to be concerned for her safety. As could be predicted, that doe disappeared the first day of gun season. The other mother deer showed up with what were obviously injuries due to a collision with a car. All three fawns were with her, but one of hers also seemed to have a seriously injured leg.
As winter came, the doe continued to get thinner in spite of our putting food out for her, and her difficulty in walking continued. Her fawn's leg was thicker in the injury area so it was easily identifiable. Eventually, the weakened doe subcombed to fate and disappeared, but the three young ones continued to graze in the area. The last time I saw them, it was nearly spring. The young deer were crossing the road, and one was dragging a leg as it attempted to walk. Such a sad ending for these beautiful creatures.
Well, I did it again, I became attached to one of the does that frequent our area.
Let me introduce "Courage" our doe who only has three legs that she can walk on. Her right front foot has been badly injured.
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| "Courage" |
As a breast cancer survivor who has seen some rough times, I really appreciate the strength, determination and courage that this deer has shown in her struggle to raise fawns, survive severe winters and just to travel about.
It was late 2008 when Courage first came to my attention. She was attempting to walk on only three legs. I'm sure she had been in our field many times, but now with her huge handicap, she stood out. What happened to her is unknown. Perhaps a trap or some kind of injury to her leg resulted in this life changing event. Every time she attempted to walk on her three normal legs, she would slip and nearly fall. It was so sad to watch her, especially when the ground was wet. Her struggle just to move became even more difficult. The other deer left her behind and soon she was only seen alone.
In early summer of 2009, I was surprised to see her appear in our field with a tiny fawn. Future sightings of her were alone. Maybe she wasn't strong enough to feed her baby or protect it from predators. We watched her throughout the season marveling that she hadn't been hit on the road. Courage seemed to like to stay close by and over time, paid little attention to our comings and goings.
The winter of 2009-2010 was especially difficult with deep snows. I stopped measuring in early January when we had exceeded 100 inches. Although I do not have an exact measurement for the area around our house, my guess is that we received at least 175 inches before winter ended.
As usual, Courage had disappeared as soon as hunting season began during the previous fall. We feared the worst for her and couldn't imagine how she could move about enough to forage for food in such deep snow. To our delight, she reappeared in early summer with twins. Unfortunately, it wasn't long until she was bringing only one fawn to graze in the field with her.
Last fall, with doe season in progress, we hoped that with only three useful legs, she would not fall victim to a hunter looking for an easy kill. In early spring I was overjoyed to see that once again she had survived. This year I began documenting her journey after my husband saw her and took pictures of her, early one morning, with her tiny twins. What a nice surprise she presented us with.
These are her fawns on June 15. In the photo below, one of her tiny fawns nuzzles her looking for some food.
By September 24, they had become quite active and like all siblings, delighted in racing about and chasing each other. Here is a quiet moment while Mom rests and they refuel for another playful episode.
They were growing up, but just like toddlers, they still wanted the comfort of the closeness with their mother.
Courage seemed to fatigue easily and to rest more than I had ever noticed previously. This picture was taken in mid September and her fur was changing on the top of her back to a deeper brown for winter.
Here she grooms one of her babies. As I watched her, I wondered what it must be like for her. She is a deer that always travels alone, unable to keep up with the others. Now she has two precious babies that she watches over and that go with her almost everywhere.
Sadly, that was the last time that I saw her with both fawns. By late September, she did not come around for several days. While my husband was mowing, he came across a dead fawn which further increased our concerns for the safety of Courage and her little family. We watched, hoping to see her emerge from the woods with both babies. Finally, we saw her but only with one fawn.
Courage began to stay closer to the house in an area bordered on one side by woods and on the other by a seven foot fence that keeps the deer out of the flower and vegetable gardens. One day, early last week, we looked out to see her fawn peering around inside our flower garden while it's mom continued to graze in the grassy area outside of the fence. We watched as the fawn deftly squeezed through a hole at the bottom of the fence. My husband had not totally finished repairing it after a bear had bashed its way in earlier this summer.
Over a period of several days, we enjoyed watching the antics of the fawn while its mom waited outside, lying up against the fence.
It sampled the hostas and oh so many tasty plants. For a little deer, this must have been like Christmas morning is to human children.
On Sunday afternoon with autumn in full color, heavy traffic began to appear on our road. We must have been part of a back roads autumn tour. Groups of motorcycles went by and the car and other vehicle traffic, in both directions, was incessant. Neither my husband nor I could remember seeing so many people in our area. I'm sure that it would have been very difficult for any animal to safely cross the road.
Then, about midafternoon our fawn appeared alone. It slipped into the fence just as it had for so many days and began sampling the hostas. The young deer looked around as if expecting its mom to appear. Finally, it lay down against the inside of the fence next to the spot where it's mother had been lying on the outside of the fence, the afternoon before. It stayed for a couple of hours alternately looking at times as if it expected its mother and at others, dozing. Meanwhile my husband also dozed for a while on the swing just about 40 feet away. Finally, the fawn left and headed into the woods.
We were gone on Sunday, but we have seen the fawn twice today. Both times it was inside our fence, and both times it seemed agitated and afraid, staying only briefly. Unfortunately, this story of another doe does not seem to have a happy ending either.
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