Happy Birthday to Blossom the Rescue Fawn.

[bvar22]

Blossom came to live with us in July of 2011.
She was about 3 weeks old.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=268x5178

She is a year old now,
and has grown into a beautiful, young Doe.

She has shed her drab Winter coat,
and her Summer colors are awesome with striking red highlights.

We called her "Sweetee" when she was little because that mimicked the "Eee..Eee"
sounds she made as a fawn. That morphed in her Big Girl name of Sweet Tea,
though her Proper Name is still Blossom.


She is free to come and go as she chooses in our very rural area.
We thought she would join the wild deer that roam this area,
and we have seen her with other deer,
but we believe she stays fairly close.
She usually sleeps somewhere Off Campus,
and appears at random times during the day,
especially if she hears us talking or working outside.
She is very quiet and can sneak up unnoticed.
An unexpected tug on the back of a TeeShirt can be very startling, especially if someone believes he is alone in very rural surroundings.
((GASP)”Oh. Its you”. (Clutching heart) “You scared the shit out of me.”)


In cooler weather, my Wife & I will take an evening Walk in the Woods.
Our two cats have always gone with us, and now Sweet Tea has become a regular member of the entourage.

(Thank gawd the chickens don't follow too.)

Like most of us, she has discovered that it is better to be hand fed.

Food always taste better when someone else does the work.
In this case, "the work" was picking a branch off the same bush she was eating.

Now that the Summer heat is here, we sit in the shade in the evenings,
and Sweet Tea has become a regular part of the Family Time ritual.
Everyone agrees that in the Summer Heat, Shade is Good.

While she may or may not appear during the day,
she always shows up about an hour before sunset.
We initially thought that she was doing this for easy food during the Winter,
but now she has plenty of forage, and will hang out just for the company.

She and our big Male Mouser (Monkee) still enjoy their special relationship that started before she was big enough to go outside.






She thinks she is Da Bomb,

....and, of course, she is.


Sweet Tea has become a family member.
We look forward to our shared evenings together,
but we are careful to remind each other that this could end at any time for various reasons, some of them very bad. We don’t have the heart to keep this beautiful animal in a pen. Today could be the day that she doesn’t come home.
If that day comes, we will cry and grieve, but cherish what she has already given us.

A Note of Caution:
[font color=firebrick]Sweet Tea IS a Wild Animal![/font]
Deer are very high strung.
There are reasons why they have never been domesticated.
While she is gentle and loving most of the time,
if she is startled, she is EXPLOSIVE, POWERFUL and DANGEROUS.
She is especially nervous on windy days when there is a lot of movement, noise, and the Sense of Smell is diminished.

We always let her approach us,
and never get between her and the way out.
Deer are especially dangerous to themselves and anyone else in confined spaces.
Male Deer (Bucks) have attacked and killed their keepers during Rut.
We would not consider keeping a Buck.

Since Sweet Tea is a wild animal, there are no vaccines or medicines that are approved for her,
and no licensed Veterinarian will treat her. Deer can carry diseases that are transmittable to Humans, such as Lyme Disease. If she becomes sick or seriously injured, we will have no options.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

1. This is the best story I've ever seen on DU since 2001

What part of the country?

Edited to add: You made my day! Thanks.

[bvar22]

2. We live in West/Central Arkansas....

... in a very rural area of the Ouachita Mountains.
We moved here from Minneapolis in 2006 looking to live as Sustainably & Independently as possible.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=268x2601

So far, so good.
Thanks for the kind words!

[beac]

3. I've been so looking forward to this post and it was even better than I'd anticipated.

You did a wonderful thing helping that little fawn and she's grown into a truly magnificent creature. The pictures in this and the original post are just amazing. You've done a wonderful job of letting her choose the life she wanted and it says a lot that she decided to keep you and her Mamma and her cat buddy in it. She knows she's a deer but she also knows she has a family outside her species.

I also admire your realistic view of what the future may bring and your recognition that she is not a pet but a wild creature. Thank you for putting a much-needed smile on my face tonight.



And so, here's a silly question... What did you do about "housebreaking" when she was living indoors?

[bvar22]

6. Thank You.

For survival in the Wild, the Momma Deer has to tell the fawn when & where it is OK to use the bathroom. The Fawn is born with this instinct so that they don't give away their Hideout to predators with sensitive noses.

A human Momma Deer can simulate this by leading the fawn to another area, and rubbing the fawn's rear end with a warm, wet wash cloth. The fawn will poop right in the washcloth which makes things easier. Their poop is pellets (like a rabbit), and near odorless, unless they get diarrhea which is a whole different nightmare. (My poor wife).
This is not a duty that we could share. The fawn bonds with and trusts only her Momma.

We are in the process (a long, never ending process) of building/re-building/fixing up/ renovating/saving the abandoned, 1/2 finished cabin that was on the property we bought, so we weren't too worried about the "housebreaking". There were several areas where we put down some old carpet scraps, covered them with some old towels, and that was "it". We changed and washed the towels frequently.

They do grow up very fast the first few months, and we were able to move her outside before things got too bad. We then threw out the old carpet scraps, and washed down the bare plywood flooring with diluted bleach.

We were both pleasantly relieved that the fawn doesn't make much odor...
very mild. I guess this is for survival. A stinky fawn wouldn't last very long in a environment filled filled with hungry predators with excellent noses.

In some ways, caring for very young fawns is more difficult than normal pets, and even human children. My wife was an excellent 24/7 Deer Momma, sleeping on the floor with her for the first 6 weeks, taking her to the bathroom frequently, and doing all those things real Deer Mommas do, including taking her for walks and teaching her to forage for food.

Neither of us had any experience raising fawns, but found that it is not uncommon in this area,
and we were able to access a lot of information, both online, and from others who had done the same thing. It is legal to keep up to 5 wild animals in Arkansas, and unfortunately, fawns lose their mothers all too often.

One of our neighbors took in a fawn 4 years ago. The substitute Deer Momma became so attached that she couldn't separate. They now live with a full grown Doe in their house.
The Deer Momma and her baby watch TV on the couch together.
This is not as idyllic as it sounds.
They have had to cover their windows with plywood to keep her from trying to Jump Out if she gets frightened, and they never have visitors.
They have sectioned off the house, and the part that belongs to the deer opens to a small outside pen with high wood fencing.

This neighbor was able to give us much good information,
including the advice to move Blossom to an outside pen and separate asap.

My Wife & Blossom still have a very special relationship.
Blossom likes me, accepts me as a friend, and will walk with me in the woods,
but she LOVES her Deer Momma,
and will leave me in an instant if she sees her Momma, or even hears her voice,
bounding and leaping with tail wagging joy to run to her Momma.
I am glad I am not a jealous man.

[jwirr]

13. You need to write a book about this. A momma was killed near our little farm and we knew there

was a fawn but we could not find it after hunting for a week. Hopefully it was old enough to survive.

[mopinko]

4. very cool bvar.

what fun!

[bvar22]

7. It is a lot of fun, and enlightening.

But, honestly, she can be a pest at times,
like trying to eat a piece of fruit when she is around.

She doesn't want just a piece.
She wants the whole thing!
How can you say No?

[mopinko]

9. well, you didn't bring her one too?

wtf? who could blame her?

[Vanje]

5. LOVE! nt

[bvar22]

8. Thank You all for the kind words.

I will pass on your Birthday Greetings to Blossom this evening.

[beac]

10. I was telling an old friend the story of Blossom today and she said

"Like the James Taylor song!" I had completely forgotten about that song (quite popular when I was in high school.)

So Blossom can claim a theme song, if she likes.

(Please ignore the weird creepy voice interference @ the two minute mark--- not sure what that's all about but this was the only video with the original version I could find on the series of tubes. )

[bvar22]

11. Thank You, Beac!

That song is perfect for her!

I had forgotten it too.
We ALL had that album,
and James Taylor is still one of my very favorites.

Much appreciated!

[beac]

12. So glad you are pleased.

It made me smile to think of Blossom listening to "Blossom."

Please give her a pet (or an apple!) from her Auntie Beac in VA.

[fasttense]

14. I once had a deer come visit me while I was feeding and watering the sheep.

She seem to understand that food was in my bucket and she ate out of the outside trough with the sheep. She looked about the age of your Sweet Tea. She seemed very thin considering my fat sheep and with such big eyes. She let me pet her and rub her neck. She wasn't injured in any way. So, she hung out with the sheep and me for about an hour. Then, she ran off when she saw some dogs on the ridge. Jumped the fence like it wasn't even there.

I think she had to be someone's pet. It was such an odd encounter. I felt like Snow White when the forest animals all come to her in the Disney cartoon.

[AnnaCarner]

15. I had a Deer Blossom too:)

Hello,

I followed a post to your beautiful pictures of your sweet deer, Blossom. The post is several years old, and I wonder how Blossom is doing?

In 1999, I rescued a deer and also named her Blossom. She became part of our family and lived in and out of our home for ten years. She was featured in a documentary in 2013 on Nat'l Geographic Nature channel. I was asked to write a book about our relationship. It was published earlier this year.

We lived in a hunting community in Tewksbury, NJ and decided to campaign for her life by inviting our local hunters to meet her. They became her friends, mostly.

Anyhow, I hope your beautiful doe, and her friends, are doing well. Your lovely pictures brought back so many memories. Thank you.

Anna Carner

[lunasun]

16. Wow what a great story & welcome to DU