Things Happen For A Reason

On the night on 06/07/15 Heather and I sat on the couch debating whether or not we really wanted to go on that walk that we had talked about.  It was about 8pm and the sun was still out just a bit.  It had been fairly hot that day and neither of us were that excited to go for a walk in the heat.  I'm still not sure what it was but something made me choose to go on that walk.  So we set out from our house and head off down the street.  We get just down the street when Heather spotted a doe in a little valley in between some houses.  We stopped and were watching the doe when all of a sudden a little tiny fawn popped up out of the tall weeds and started stumbling towards its momma.  It made its way slowly and finally got to her and then it started to feed right there in front of us.  Neither of us had ever seen a baby deer that small or witnessed one nurse.
 

So at this point I am mad because I didn't bring my camera and this was all happening right then.  So I ran back to the house and got my camera and ran straight back.  By the time that I got back the doe had moved up the hill a way towards the back of some of the houses. So I tried to snap some shots but I really was too far away.
 

So after getting a couple shots off I knew that i had to move.  So we walked around the front of the houses and down the street to where we thought the doe was going to be.  When we got to the side of the house I could see just the head of the doe and every time that I moved she would look at me.  So i crept down the side of the hill, trying desperately not to slide or face plant down the hill. I got to the bottom and I noticed that the doe had moved away but she was not too far away. I thought that that was bit strange since the deer here usually bolt when you get anywhere near them.  So I stayed back and got off another couple of shots while the little fawn was trying to catch up to the doe.  They were now maybe 20 yards from me.  So as I am watching the doe and the baby in the field, something catches my eye and I look to my left and just on the other side of a six foot tall chain link fence sits a fox.  Now I am really confused. First of all, I have never seen a fox just sitting anywhere.  They are usually running around or hiding, not sitting only about 5 feet away from me.  At this point I didn't really know what I should be focused on so I started taking some shots of the little fox. 
 

After only a couple of shots the fox started to get up and move and I figured that I had scared it away.  But something about the fox is just not right.  I watch the fox walk away slowly and quietly.  Not as if he was scared of me but as if he was stalking prey.  I watch him walk about 10 feet and then i see something move about 20 feet ahead of him but I can't quite make it out.  It was just getting dark out now and we were in a little valley under a couple of trees so the light wasn't the greatest.  As the fox gets closer to the object I finally realize what it is.  It's another fawn!  This little girl was panicking and trying her hardest to get though the fence but of course she can't get through the little holes.  She would stand up and run at the fence and then bounce right off.  As the fox closed in I heard a loud noise coming from the weeds where the doe had been and sure enough momma was coming to try to scare off the fox.  She ran right up to the fence but the fox was not deterred one bit.  That fox had dinner on his mind and nothing was going to stop him from getting that fresh meat. 
 

As i watched the fox getting closer and closer to the fawn I could hear the little girl let out a few cries for help.  The doe couldn't make it over the fence and at that point I knew that I had to step in and do something.  I called Heather; she was oblivious to everything going on because of her vantage point, down the hill to help me.  When she got down the hill, I showed her what was about to happen.  I handed her my camera and hopped over that fence in no time flat.  It's a good thing that I am still a bit agile because that wire on top of the fence was razor sharp and if I would have slipped, it would have certainly been a trip to the E.R.  Once I got over the fence the fox scurried away and gave me some room to get close to the little baby.  When I first got within about 5 feet I noticed that the little one only had 3 legs.  The first thing through my head is that the fox had already gotten a piece of her and was just waiting for her to die.  But then the more that I looked, I didn't see any blood.  She was still trying to run though the fence at this point in an effort to get away and get back to mom but she would just bounce off of the fence and fall down. About the third time that it happened she just stayed on the ground and let me pick her up.  She didn't seem to be injured so I handed her over the fence to Heather and hopped back over.  When I got back to Heather, we looked out in the weeds where the doe and other fawn had been but they were already long gone.  We both did not want to leave her there without any protection.  It's at that point that Heather told me that she thought that the fox was going to attack me because it was merely feet away the entire time that I was trying to rescue the fawn.  So that cemented it.  We were not leaving the little baby for it to become a meal. 
 

We walked back to my house and while we were walking we were trying to figure out who to call.  It was a Sunday night.  By this point it is way too late for any vet to be open so we called on some friends and neighbors to try to figure out what the best thing to do would be.  They came up with a couple of good leads but to no avail.  No one was answering and so we resorted to Google....  Gotta love Google.  Come to find out, if you rescue a fawn the best bet is to keep it in a box or a cage and cover it up so that it is nice and dark and put it in a warn quiet area of your house.  For me, that was in the bathroom.  Do not feed it.  Just let it relax as much as possible.  At this point we knew that we were going to be keeping it for the night and we would take it in to a rescue shelter in the morning.  We were both praying the whole night that the little girl would make it through the night.  We were not sure if the whole ordeal was too much for her or not.  At about 5:45am the next morning we were woken up by cries from the little girl.  She had made it through the night. 
 

We were both very relieved but the rescue shelter did not open till 10 am and it was an hour away in a car.  So I tried to find things to keep me busy while the minutes passed soooooo slowly by.  I waited as long as I possibly could and left the house at just passed 8 am.  I knew that I was going to be early but I just couldn't wait any longer.  So I loaded her up in the cage with the towel still covering most of the cage but not the whole thing.  I had to keep an eye on here so I left the towel off the front of the cage.  I had to know that she was okay on the road trip! She seemed calm the whole time.  I would talk to here once in a while just so that she knew that things were going to be okay.  She would look at me every time that I talked to her and she would blink her eyes.  Almost as if toa cknowledge the fact that I was helping her and she was okay with it.  Every time that I said something, her breathing would slow down also.  I tried to keep my eyes on the road for the most part but she was just so darn cute that she made it very hard to do so.  About 5 minutes from the rescue shelter I was getting nervous because I knew that it had been a long ride and I am sure that she didn't go for rides in cars for fun.  So she looked at me, kicked her left from hoof up on the side of the crate, laid her had back and just stared at me as if she was just along for the ride and enjoying the whole time.  I know that it probably sounds completely crazy but that's what I thought and it made me feel better at the time.  Here she is relaxing.
 

I took her to the Stanislaus Wildlife Care Center at: 1220 Geer Rd, Hughson, CA 95326.  The phone number is: (209) 883-9414.  The people there were very nice and accepted her right in.  They gave me an envelope with a case number on it so that I could call at any time and find out how she was doing or where she was going to be placed.  I called them at about 2:30 pm that day to see how she was doing and they told me that she was doing great and that she was going to be transfered to Tri County Wildlife Care in Jackson, CA.  I found out that they have about 10 fawns right now so Nicki (I named her that) was going to be in good company and she would have plenty of friends to play with.  I spoke with Pan from Tri County later on in the day to see if she has been dropped off yet but she had not.  They were looking forward to seeing her though.  Pam was great to talk to and she answered all of my questions.  I also spoke with Nina from Rose Wolf Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitaion Center in Twain Harte, CA and she was amazing to talk with as well.  She can be reached at (209)588-1335.  Feel free to donate to these homes for temporary guests if you feel like it. I know that I am going to.  It turns out that if Nicki is strong enogh with just 3 legs, they could release her back into the wild.  She said that it had been done before.  She is a very strong girl so I am sure that one day she will make a great mom.  I will continue to keep track of her and update this blog when I recieve any news.  Things happen for a reason..... Now I know why we were supposed to go on that walk.