Our pasture fences are five feet tall. Deer can easily hop over them, and often do. Adult deer that is.
I keep seeing this fawn in the paddock where the pigs live.
My guess is that she was born in the pasture and sometime later, when she was old enough to wean, her mother moved on. Normally the fawn would follow her but in this case I’m assuming the fawn wasn’t able to jump the fence and therefore got left behind.
She is often laying by the fence when I go to feed the pigs in the morning. At first she was easily startled and dashed away whenever I came into sight. But lately she’s been a little more curious and a little less afraid. That’s how I was able to get the pictures. I don’t expect to be seeing her much longer though. It’s about time she jumped over the fence and resumed living among deer, rather than pigs.
venison the Rapture
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If this can be attributed to the Rapture, then only the mother deer was worthy. The fawn, and the rest of us, were left behind.
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Well, now. Isn’t that just a metaphor on the hoof? I’ve had that experience myself — getting caught behind some fence or another, and having to grow up some before I could get out. 🙂
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idea for naming the fawn: fence pants
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What a great observation. It is indeed a fine metaphor. I wish I’d thought of it. 🙂
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Bill, when I first started gardening at Terra Nova Gardens, I was doing weed control one day and out of the woods stepped a nearly full grown deer. I continued to work on pulling weeds as the deer moseyed along munching on grass for a time and then wandered back into the woods. I’ve not seen any deer the last two years but I suspect they are still there lurking in the woods. There was no fear of me being there about 20 feet away. The turkeys are the same. They will scratch around in the mulch while I’m working in the garden and get as close as 10 feet away. They always keep a watchful eye on what I’m doing but as long as I’m just working in the garden, they will get pretty close. I’ve always talked to the animals and birds at all my gardens. People probably think I’m a little crazy and I know that they can’t understand my words but I believe they can understand the tonal qualities of the voice and the body language which is a large part of communication. It’s a difficult thing to try to live in harmony with the wild life population and still get a meaningful harvest. I’ve yet to get any kind of sweet corn harvest but I keep trying and soon the fence will be finished which I think will keep the rascal raccoons out. That will be a happy day.
Have a great wild life appreciation day.
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I talk to animals too. Seems perfectly sensible to me. I’ve talked to this fawn a lot. The conversations are obviously one-sided, but I think talking to animals can contribute to their sensing whether we’re threats to them or not. My talks with the fawn have been pleasant enough, but I’ve had some harsh words for her some of her kin from time to time.
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I assume by the fact it is still alive and well that Mum keeps popping over to see to it! Never thought of fawns getting left behind a fence
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I haven’t seen the mama. This one is big enough to be weaned so I expect she’s living on her own now. I can’t be sure that’s what happened here, but this fence is woven wire so there’s no way she could have gotten in it unless she was born in it. As soon as she’s able to jump it (which shouldn’t be much longer) I don’t expect to see much of her again.
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Awe! A future okra eater!
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Did you have to go and bring that up? 🙂
Some of her fellow deer have been getting inside the fences around the sweet potatoes lately and eating the vines. Luckily it’s just about time to harvest them so it shouldn’t do any damage.
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Maybe it thinks of the pigs as mama. 🙂 We often watch little ones pacing back and forth when mama deer has jumped over the fence. Eventually they figure out all they have to do is walk down to an opening about 30 feet away. –Curt
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I haven’t seen any expressions of affection between the pigs and the fawn. If that happens that would be a great story. Pigs are pretty self-centered creatures though. So I don’t expect it. 🙂
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In NZ they farm quite a lot of deer (for antlers and venison) and the breeding lines have been domesticated for enough generations that the deer apparently don’t know they can jump fences. So the deer fences are only about 5 ft high. Where they fence higher, it’s to keep the wild deer OUT, not the domestic deer in.
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That’s interesting. As I’m sure you’ve experienced, animals can become trained to a fence so that they don’t get out, even if they can. Our goats could easily escape but in all the years we’ve had them they never have. They’ve just learned to stay in the fence.
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What a sweet little visitor you have.
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She’s mostly been a confused little visitor I think. I didn’t see her the last two days so maybe she worked up the courage to leap the fence.
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[…] (tie) Left Behind. About the fawn living in our pigs’ […]
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