Look what Rosie found

James and I were in the field garden today putting up a solar powered electric fence to keep the deer away.   We took the dogs over with us because they like to run through the field and play by the river and creek.  I heard Rosie barking her bark that says, "look what I found".  It took me awhile to find her but I followed her barking.   She has killed many groundhogs so I thought I'd find her with one.  Instead she was barking at this newborn fawn.  It still had wobbly legs and the placenta was nearby with flies all over it.  We assumed the mom must have run off when it saw the dogs coming.   After looking at it and letting it check us out we took the dogs back to the house because Rosie would have stayed there with it forever, I think.  I was just pleased she didn't kill it.  The little guy seemed to like Rosie even though she barked at it for so long.

I went back a few hours later and it was still there lying in the grass only now there were flies on it.  That bothered me.  I brought it back to the house and tried bottle feeding it goat's milk.  It wouldn't take the bottle.  I took it back to where I found it figuring it might still have a chance that its mom would come back for it.  I called the Wildlife Center of VA and they told me that mother deer leave their babies all day and come back for them at dusk.  They will move the baby to a different location that night.  If the baby is still there in the morning then he has been abandoned and I'm to call them and they'll come get him.  I hope we didn't ruin his chances for him and his mom.  If it wasn't for the flies on him I would have left him alone.  His back legs are crooked but that could be because he was so new or because Rosie hurt him.  He didn't act hurt though, just wobbly.  I hope he survives and then stays out of our gardens.

These pictures are why I try to remember to take a camera with me more often.  Actually I thought we'd take pictures of us putting up the fence.   I forgot to take pictures of that.   There's a video clip of him wobbling around and checking us out below these pictures.

http://s1019.photobucket.com/albums/af317/kpannabecker/?action=view&current=MVI_3486.flv