Baby June the fawn

When you leave Grandma's house, you boat to the railroad tracks, walk over the railroad tracks and then get on the tractor to ride back to the truck. The water there isn't deep enough for a boat, but it's too deep for a truck. So the point is - the railroad tracks stick up for miles and miles - with water on either side. When we left Grandma's house and crossed the railroad tracks, we found June, a tiny little fawn. She was bleating, scared and stumbling - and too young to be afraid of us. Her mother was dead and she was sure to be dead within 24 hours, probably sooner than that - there was no way she was going to survive on those railroad tracks. We had a hamper full of bunnies we were saving... we just couldn't leave June on the railroad tracks.

So after a little cajoling, my cousin Gerald got her and we took her back with us, too. Mom had seen a news report about a Wildlife Rescue place in Ballwin that was taking orphaned animals, so we decided we'd take her there.

Once we had her, she calmed down and was perfectly at ease with us. She road in my lap all the way back to Mom and Dad's house - and then for two hours back to St Louis. I didn't have to hold her, she fell right asleep on my lap. She couldn't possibly have weighed more than fifteen pounds.

We called the Wildlife Rescue once we got back to Mom and Dad's house, their message said they'd be open until 8 PM and to leave a message detailing your wildlife emergency. So we left a message and headed to Ballwin. About the time we hit Wentzville, my phone notified me that I had a message (must have been out of service when they returned my call). The Wildlife Rescue place left me a message saying that they weren't licensed to take deer, so they'd have to euthanize her if we brought her in. They went on to say that there wasn't any place in the state of Missouri that could take her. They suggested we call the Conservation Department. I was in shock - and I just didn't know what to do. The Conservation Department said they couldn't be of much help either. Their best suggestion was to let her go near where we'd found her and hope her mother would show up. But her mother was dead! And we found her in the middle of a flood - miles from dry land!

After some discussion - and yes, some tears - we decided to let her go in Creve Coeur Park in an area where we regularly see lots of deer in the evenings. We go there specifically to see deer and are never disappointed. I know it's unlikely that another female deer will take her and let her feed. I'm hoping she's old enough to eat grass and make it on her own. There aren't many coyotes in the area. I don't know what else we could have done.

Some will say we should have left her where she was. But that was a death sentence, she wasn't going to last much longer on the railroad tracks - there was no place for her to go. Her mother is dead. I wanted to take her to a wildlife specialist and guarantee her life, but that wasn't a possibility. I strongly believe that we gave her the best chance we could - at least she's better off now than she was on those tracks.

We walked her deep into the woods and let her go. She came back to me a couple of times, then to J - and then walked into the woods. She turned around to look at us a couple of times, then started into the woods bleating for her mother.

And I came home and cried.