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Battling Bambi - Page 2

© Marge Talt

After an hour or two of listening to the heart-rendering bleating of that fawn as it wandered disconsolately up and down the cleared area outside the fence, I started to get worried...what was I in for here? Was I going to have to try to catch it again and take it to a rehabber?

I decided to remove myself from the area for a while, to see if that would make a difference. Once the doe was sure I was gone (I was watching from a window), she did come back and get the fawn and they vanished into the woods...temporarily, as I was to discover.

That doe knew that my garden was a safe haven for her child and she wanted a baby-sitter - me. Under cover of darkness, she brought it around the unfinished end of the fence and back into the garden.

The next day, there it was, curled up under some shrubs. It let me get within about three feet (.91m) before it erupted from its nest and bounded off. We played this game for several days until I just gave up. No way was I going to be able to catch that fawn again. It spent its days curled up in whichever spot mom had left it when she departed for the day. I could set my watch by her; she'd start heading around to the end of the fence about 8:00PM every night for a feeding.

Each day my fence grew longer; I started to wonder just how I was going to get this fawn out of the garden before the fence got finished. About two months after I'd first stumbled across this baby, it became strong enough to follow it's mom and one night she took it with her and it was gone.

This was, however, the year of the fawn. I worked on the fence every evening until it got too dark to see. One evening, I'd just given up for the night and was sitting on the bench at our west border, taking a breather before going inside. To our mutual astonishment, a doe trailing four fawns walked right in front of me. I must have been downwind from her and I was just sitting quietly so she didn't see me until she almost stepped on my foot.

I let out a yell and all five of them turned tail and ran back the way they'd come, with me in hot pursuit. Of course I didn't catch them, but I think I convinced them to look elsewhere for their evening meal.

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