209. Miscellaneous
211. Cat adopts panda

Jet

Early in the morning on Sunday, May 4, my husband was on his way to work when he came back and woke me up. Cradled in his arms was a newborn fawn! Its mother had been hit by a car, and Mike had found this little guy in the ditch on the side of he road, still covered in the uterine fluids.

As it was obviously an orphan and too young to take care of itself, Mike gathered it up and brought it home. It was either that or leave it to die. My husband just couldn't do it... so he was a wee bit late to work...

When the fawn came home, it was too weak to raise its little head. It just lay curled in a blanket - a nest to keep it warm.

It was so tiny! I'd never seen a fawn so small! Of course, they are kept hidden until they are a bit older....

While it slept I did a little research. It amazed me just how many sites there are on "newborn fawn rescue" and "raising a newborn fawn."

Of course, none of them agreed on a feeding schedule. They agreed that he needed goat's milk with colostrum within the first 24 hours (off to HEB and GNC for the milk and colostrum to mix in with it), and that it needed goat's milk after that. The amount differed greatly! Also differing was when to start introducing grasses, etc. So. We wing it. Were actually doing really well - he let's us know when he wants his bottle, and drinks until he's full. We have a HUGE fenced area, and he nips and nibbles and roots around as he pleases. I also planted basil and tomatoes, since I can't keep them in my garden due to the deer.

He also gets along great with the rest of the menagerie - all four cats, the bunny, and the Great Dane. Drake (the dane) thinks he has a puppy now!!

Pooping was a shock. Fawns can't poop on their own for awhile - the literature says six weeks. You have to wipe their little bottoms with a baby wipe, then they poop. If they don't, then they get septic and die. NOT good. In the wild the mom uses her tongue, but Mike & I prefer the baby wipes!!!
Here are some first week pictures of Jet - called so because he has such a streamlined little head with these HUGE wings (um, ears).

Stalking, hopping, leaping, running & playing all seemed to be the main agenda for Jet while he was outside, as well as experimenting with different greens dirts and bugs, and finding spots to hole up in. His constant playmate when he's out of his fenced area is Drake - our Great Dane! He even tries to nurse, and Drake lets him!

Drake & Jet have been almost constant playmates, both inside the house and out, and Jet seems convinced that Drake is really a deer in a dog suit. It's amazing how gentle Drake is with such a fragile animal, and how much the little fawn trusts him.

Week 4: It's now been decided that Jet isn't truly a deer. He's really half pig and half billygoat. We've also determined that the little guy only has two internal organs - the stomach and the bladder, of which the bladder is the way bigger of the two. He's drinking more water with his goat's milk now, and continues to graze at will outside, but we've also discovered a few other culinary likes and dislikes regarding our little guy. Carrots. He can't get enough of them. He can't bite down yet, so we slice them in long, thin strips that he nibbles down like some people slurp spaghetti. He finds a bite or two of radish quite tasty, and can't seem to get enough apple slices. Forget about the strawberries though, but a green grape or two goes down just fine. Unfortunately he also seems partial to the fringe of my hand-embroidered afghan that I made back when I graduated from college. Fringe benefits?

He still likes to nurse on Drake, who although usually rambunctious and unruly is very patient and gentle with the little fawn. Once in awhile we have to holler "Drake, spit the deer out," but we have to holler that about the cats, as well. He doesn't hurt them - just sticks their heads in his mouth and washes their faces. The cats just bat at him - Jet just stands there like he's wondering about the strange, stinky rinse cycle. Then he goes back to trying to nurse....

Week 5: Hop, skip, run & play. And nurse. And pee. And nurse. And pee... Jet's been racing around the land with Drake in tow, stopping every so often to snatch a nibble of green, a taste of root, or an attempted drink of Dane. Then he'll go leaping off again, either that or he'll skulk through the tall grasses with his ears laid back and his head ducked down. You can almost hear the theme to Mission Impossible playing in the background...

...and then there is the infamous deer-peeing "kangaroo pose." He has the flicking "happy tail," and the trembling "I have to pee" tail. Kangaroo-pose has the trembling "I have to pee" tail. The tail will start to tremble before he starts to pee, and if he's in the house Mike & I go diving for towels or a dirty shirt, which then gets plopped in the washer. Then "happy-tail" comes back.

Did I mention that he likes carrot strips? I lied - he absolutely loves them.