24/06/2025
During the 23+ years of living here I have had my share of run-ins with bears, wolves, raccoons, wild ducks and geese, turtles, but nothing more so, than deer and their baby fawns. My dogs, especially Johnny Cash, seem to have a knack for finding baby fawns soaking up the sun out in our fields or adjacent walking trails, even if by accident.
Here is where the kennel comes into play with this story.
Last Thursday, while out in the play/exercise area with several kennel dogs, I kept hearing this very persistent bleating sound. I could tell the direction it was coming from; I just couldn’t tell if it was on our side of the road or across the road. I was confident it was a baby fawn making the noise, and I was pretty sure it was in distress. After putting the dogs back in the kennel, I headed out to see if I could find where the little guy was. I knew I had to be careful when looking for it, so as not to accidentally flush it out causing it to run out onto the road. He was not that hard to find as his crying became louder and more persistent. My fear of him running out onto the road was unfounded, as soon as he laid eyes on me, he came right to me. I gathered him up in my arms and headed home with him. Baby fawns are so fragile, they are unbelievably light weight. I could feel his heart thumping fast against my chest as I carried him.
Not having anything on hand to feed him I began making some phone calls hoping to find someone that knew where I could find some fresh goat milk.
Here is where this becomes a kennel story again. A couple of those phone calls were made to boarding customers.
And you thought this wasn’t a kennel story.
In between making calls to find the goat milk, I called my neighbor across the road and asked if by chance he had seen any deer nearby on the side of the road. He had.
He told me there was a doe that had been struck by a car and killed and was lying in the ditch between his driveway and our road. He thought it had occurred during the night or early that morning.
I knew then the fawn had been without food for at least 12 hours if not more. Even though he confirmed what I had already suspected, the loss of the fawn’s mom suddenly hung heavily in the air.
I knew now I was caring for an orphan.
As luck would have it, I found someone on Facebook marketplace that was selling fresh raw goats’ milk, and they lived only a few miles from my house! After picking up the milk the next stop was
L & M to get a bottle and then quickly get back home to feed Buck Wild. Oh yeah, I had named him Buck Wild.
After warming the milk up just enough, I introduced him to the bottle, and he did the rest. He ate like a champ. I made sure he went potty, then set him up on some straw and gave him a blanket. As I left him in the barn for the night, he seemed quite content. Buck Wild was safe now.
Leaving him that night in the barn, my thoughts quickly went to the idea of keeping him and raising him. As much as I wanted to, I knew it was/is illegal to keep a wild animal penned up without a permit. But that didn’t stop me from playing out that scenario in my mind a thousand times. I had already become quite attached to him.
The following day arrangements were made to have him transported to a wildlife rehabilitation center, Wild & Free, in Garrison, MN., on Saturday.
That meant I still had him for another 24 hours! We packed in a lot in those 24 hours.
My 3-year-old German Shepherd, C**t, became his close guardian. Buck Wild really seemed to connect with C**t and vice versa.
As much as I wanted to keep Buck Wild forever, I knew the best thing for him was to be with his own kind and be given the opportunity to return to the wild once he was old enough and strong enough. That doesn’t mean I didn’t shed a tear when I had to hand him over to the very kind volunteer from Wildwoods who was doing the transport to Wild & Free.
Even though I only had him here for a short time, Buck Wild really made his way into my heart. I’m not sure why.
