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, being 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 was remarkably beautiful. Perfectly placed white spots adorned her like regal attire. They gave her depth providing her with an unsurpassed camouflage necessary for this delicate fawn. Yes, she was a little princess.
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 to be 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 sets out looking for his mother asking everything that moved, “Are you my mother?” until his mother finally comes back and finds him. What had happened to this day old fawns mother? Would a mother deer abandon her fawn? Was she looking for her baby right now? Was she even alive? The evidence seemed to point to the latter.
Little Princess was willing to accept anything as her mother. She tried to adopt three different goats, each one rejecting her with kicks and bunts. She even tried to adopt the dogs and cats who were actually kinder to her but had nothing to offer her for food. She tried to adopt us as well, rutting on our legs and on our clothes. When it became too tiresome to hold a milk goat still for her to nurse, which was also setting her up for more abuse from the reluctant mother, we decided to put her totally on formula or goats milk from a bottle.
She was thriving. The formula 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 little creature. When coming out for her feeding I would call, “Little Princess, baby deer” and she would wobble over and begin licking my legs or nibbling on my skirt looking for her bottle. Sucking so voraciously at times that she would lose control of her tongue. Over time she got to be a better more experienced nurser drinking until her little tummy was full and round and satisfied.
About a week later I noticed a decrease in her appetite and a weakness in her walk. Then she was plagued with a terrible case of diarrhea which after a few days really zapped her energy. I tried treating her the way one would treat a goat with scours and about the time the diarrhea was getting better she 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 get medical 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 a hunters rifle. To be attacked by animals, run over by a car or placed on someone’s wall or in someone’s freezer were the only rights she had in this life.
She not only didn’t have any right to receive aid from us but we didn’t have any legal right to give her any aid. Told by the authorities to put her out and allow her to die if her mother didn’t return was a shock! If we didn’t obey the authorities we would be breaking the law. My conscience was torn, “How could we willingly break the law? We always hold up the laws of the land and teach out children to do the same. We could be fined heavily or worse if she were discovered. Yet if we don’t protect her and feed her she wouldn’t stand a chance. Could we all stand by and watch her die. What would this teach our children!” The authorities said not to aid her but we chose to follow a Higher Authority. The Authority who commanded us to take care of His creatures. They are His creatures! They do not belong to any state or government. They are Gods! It is God who made them and it is He who rejoices at each and every birth in the universe whether at a pets litter of adorable puppies or a birth in the secret recesses of the woods with not a witness there except Him and the dear mother present. It is He who mourns the death of each for not even a sparrow dies without His heart aching.
And so with a combination of fear and courage we protected, loved and cared for this little refugee until overtaken by illness she was laid to rest on August 1, 2007. Her short life gave us a little glimpse of Heaven and more of a passion to want to be there.
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