as small as a world and as large as alone

4:13pm September 13, 2014

maythefoxbewithyou:

A few weeks ago, my mom noticed two very young whitetail fawns hanging around the yard. They seemed a little disoriented and weren’t very afraid of her presence. Or of the dogs barking. She kept an eye on them and watched them wander in almost every day, slowly growing thinner and more haggard. One day, she finally enlisted my help and we crept close to them with bottles of milk replacer. They drank like they were starving- and they probably were. We tried to keep ourselves minimally involved in their development so they wouldn’t grow attached (and in case their mother somehow returned- though we had our suspicions that she had met her fate). But try as we did, they started coming close to the house and following my mother around. She calls them lightning and bolt. Every night they wander off into the sunflower field with another doe and her fawn- and every morning they return.
They have grown more wary of people, which is good. But as soon as they hear myself or my mother go “babies, where are you??” they come running. It’s kind of funny to watch them interact with the dogs- the little buck tries to headbutt them like he would another buck.

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