Bambi

Please, please, please deliver me from baby animals.

We were up early this morning (actually, I hardly got more than two hours sleep all night long)...... and we decided to go for our walk before it got too hot. (Translation: before 85 degrees turned into 100 degrees.)

There we were, walking along the road coming into these hills, on our way to the main highway where we turn around and walk back again. I had a plastic Wal-Mart bag in my hand, so I could pick up any stray bottles or cans that somehow magically appear along the road. (Translation: some people will forever be slobs.)

We walked around the bend in the road up near the now-dry creek (lack of rain) and there in the tall grass was a baby deer. I stopped dead.... it was Bambi, come to life.... curled up like a kitten in the tall grass, with only his little brown ears showing, and big brown eyes staring right at us.

Have you ever seen a very small baby deer? Beautiful brown coat, with white spots along its back, and just the sweetest face that any animal has ever been given by the hand of Nature. My immediate thought was to walk over to the deer, pick him up in my arms, cradle him like a baby, and christen him Bambi as I carried him (or her) back home.

Of course, the voice of reason was there with me. (Translation: my husband.) "The mother must be close by." Well, of course. I looked around in the woods, didn't see any sign of another deer. "If we take this little deer home, the mother will be heartbroken." Well, serves her right... leaving this poor thing so close to the road for all the world to see. "Let's go home and call someone, or look on the Internet to see what the right thing would be." Fine. My husband did walk over to the deer and pet it gently on its little head.... it just stayed there, all curled up, looking up at him like our dog Gracie used to do.

We turned around and walked less than a quarter of a mile and one of our neighbors was walking up the hill in the direction of Bambi. G has saved baby animals before, bringing them to a wildlife rescue center, so we knew she would be the one to ask about the baby deer. We told her what we found and where it was..... we continued on towards the house. Half an hour later, G came to our door..... she had called the lady at the wildlife rescue station.... they suggested the baby deer be moved away from the road, but still be protected by tall grass. She did just that, making sure the deer was in the shade near a tree. G said that when she picked Bambi up, he just nestled right into her arms with his head resting near her neck.

The wildlife station told her that a mother deer will leave her baby in tall grass while she searches for food...... she will remember where her baby is, and come back to get it. The young deer will just stay in that place, or keep itself right in that area if it does move around a bit. G made sure the baby was away from the road, in taller grass so it couldn't be seen..... and she will check on it this afternoon, and again tomorrow morning. If the baby deer is still in the same place tomorrow, then she will bring it to the lady at the rescue station.

Now of course I realize that we cannot raise a young deer. It's been done, I'm sure, but then that's another little life to protect and worry about.... keeping it safe from foxes and coyotes and bobcats... making sure it has proper food to grow and be healthy. And it's a wild deer, not a pet.... so you can't keep it penned up after it's no longer a baby. It needs its mother to teach it how to find food, how to survive, how to live. I cannot be a mother to a baby deer... not even to one who looks like Disney's Bambi.

My husband asked me why it's "always us" who find the lost animals and the abandoned pets. He said he's going to get me a pair of blinders so I don't keep discovering all of them. I don't think blinders would help. I think my body is magnetized in some way..... anything that is adorably cute and likely to break my heart just seems to find me.