Our Real Life Bambi

A few posts back I showed you some photos from our trail cam. In one of them was a doe with a fawn. The doe looked pretty beat up, but the fawn looked OK. Since then, we have been seeing a lone fawn hanging around our place, no sign of a doe anywhere. We checked the trail cam the other day, and while there were pictures of the fawn, still no doe.

We appear to have our very own real-life Bambi.

The little fella is pretty unafraid. He'll be in the front yard while we are unloading groceries from the van, hangs out by the back door or the chicken coops. The other day I was out on the back deck shucking corn and I looked up to see him grazing about 40 feet away, behind the propane tank. I tossed some squishy tomatoes in his direction but he spooked and ran up the hill. But I could hear him walking around in the brush, and he emerged five minutes later near my studio. I snuck in the house to get my camera while he munched on grass and young trees.

Of course I worry about him. While I know he will grow up simply to become the target of a hunter's gun, I feel a strong desire to take care of him. I've been leaving food otherwise destined for the compost bin in certain spots around our property, and took all the corn cobs and dumped them in front of the trail cam to see what's up. We had some heavy rain overnight a few days ago, and it got quite chilly, and I worry that he may succumb to the cold--he looks pretty thin. I might buy some deer feed--corn or carrots--and put that out too.

While I watched, our neighbor's dog started barking. The fawn's ears pricked up and he listened for a moment...

...then he started walking towards the sound. Interesting, you'd think he'd move away from the sound of a barking dog.

He eventually moved behind my studio and I decided not to follow him. I haven't seen him for several days now, but if he shows up again I will get some food and put it right here by my studio so I can keep an eye on him!