Little Princess
She toddled into our lives the afternoon of Friday, July 20, 2007. Venice and Carrie named her “Little Princess” which was quite fitting. “Little”, however, was an understatement. She was unimaginably tiny and frail. Her body was maybe a foot in length with very long and wobbly legs about the diameter of a ladies finger. Her coat wasremarkably beautiful. Perfectly placed white spots adorned her likeregal attire. They gave her depth providing her with an unsurpassedcamouflage necessary for this delicate fawn. Yes, she was a littleprincess.
From the moment she arrived she was rutting on any creature that moved,whether it was four legged or two. “Are you my mommy?”, she seemed tobe asking. It reminded me of the children’s book, “Are You My Mother”in which a mockingbird baby hatches while his mother is away so he setsout looking for his mother asking everything that moved, “Are you mymother?” until his mother finally comes back and finds him. What hadhappened to this day old fawns mother? Would a mother deer abandon herfawn? Was she looking for her baby right now? Was she even alive? Theevidence seemed to point to the latter.
Little Princess was willingto accept anything as her mother. She tried to adopt three differentgoats, each one rejecting her with kicks and bunts. She even tried toadopt the dogs and cats who were actually kinder to her but had nothingto offer her for food. She tried to adopt us as well, rutting on ourlegs and on our clothes. When it became too tiresome to hold a milkgoat still for her to nurse, which was also setting her up for moreabuse from the reluctant mother, we decided to put her totally onformula or goats milk from a bottle.
She was thriving. Theformula and milk seemed to agree with her. And, she had found her“mother”. Me. What a joy and honor to take care of this precious littlecreature. When coming out for her feeding I would call, “LittlePrincess, baby deer” and she would wobble over and begin licking mylegs or nibbling on my skirt looking for her bottle. Sucking sovoraciously at times that she would lose control of her tongue. Overtime she got to be a better more experienced nurser drinking until herlittle tummy was full and round and satisfied.
About a week laterI noticed a decrease in her appetite and a weakness in her walk. Thenshe was plagued with a terrible case of diarrhea which after a few daysreally zapped her energy. I tried treating her the way one would treata goat with scours and about the time the diarrhea was getting bettershe was hit with conjunctivitis. If she had been a dog, cat, goat,llama, fowl, camel, sheep, horse, cow, duck, snake, mouse, rabbit,hamster, guinea pig, goose, bird, pig, frog, alpaca, wallaby, turkey,fish or ostrich she might have had the right to see a vet and getmedical care. But since she was just a deer she didn’t have this right.Legally she only had the right to die at the hand of nature or ahunters rifle. To be attacked by animals, run over by a car or placedon someone’s wall or in someone’s freezer were the only rights she hadin this life.
She not only didn’t have any right to receive aidfrom us but we didn’t have any legal right to give her any aid. Told bythe authorities to put her out and allow her to die if her motherdidn’t return was a shock! If we didn’t obey the authorities we wouldbe breaking the law. My conscience was torn, “How could we willinglybreak the law? We always hold up the laws of the land and teach outchildren to do the same. We could be fined heavily or worse if she werediscovered. Yet if we don’t protect her and feed her she wouldn’t standa chance. Could we all stand by and watch her die. What would thisteach our children!” The authorities said not to aid her but we choseto follow a Higher Authority. The Authority who commanded us to takecare of His creatures. They are His creatures! They do not belong toany state or government. They are Gods! It is God who made them and itis He who rejoices at each and every birth in the universe whether at apets litter of adorable puppies or a birth in the secret recesses ofthe woods with not a witness there except Him and the dear motherpresent. It is He who mourns the death of each for not even a sparrowdies without His heart aching.
And so with a combination of fearand courage we protected, loved and cared for this little refugee untilovertaken by illness she was laid to rest on August 1, 2007. Her shortlife gave us a little glimpse of Heaven and more of a passion to wantto be there.
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