The most amazing thing that I remember from the second year of managing cows had nothing to do with cows. It was the birth of a white fawn. A beautiful, rare animal she was! But I’m getting ahead of myself.
There was older doe who called the ranch her home and would often be seen on the ridge line of the trees. On a rarer day I would see her with one or two other younger does. One day she was grazing and had a little fawn with her. I was happy for her as she always seemed lonely.
Then one day another younger doe wandered in with a fawn of her own. There was nothing usual about this little fawn. It had an all-white body with brown spots, a brown head, and white legs. The fawn was so cute but could have easily been in the circus for its rare, unusual markings…
When the fawn was only a few weeks old its mother was hit by a car and died. This was tragic. The fawn would surely perish too without it’s mother. Then something amazing happened. The older doe that wandered the ranch instantly adopted the fawn and let her nurse. This is a rare occurrence. It was a miracle.
We and all the neighbors of the ranch adopted the trio as it was just so heartwarming. All of us began leaving apples and grain out for them. We were all quite protective of them keeping watchful eyes on them.
When it came time for the deer mothers to leave their young, we all worried what would happen to the little white deer fawn. Then the third miracle happened. The white fawn and her adopted sibling met up with two other fawns their age. I would often time find them in Belle’s (my daughter’s horse) pasture grazing down by the swale pond.
As the next year went by the white fawn transformed into a doe herself. Though she looked rather peculiar she was accepted by the other deer, and she was still alive and thriving. During this time one of the state agencies wanted to come and trap her to study her. Now at first this sounded good, in theory, until we found out the way they wanted to study her was by dissecting her.
We and the neighbors around the ranch all said “no” and decided instead that she would be the mascot for the area. Each day as I would see her, I was reminded that some things in life are not meant to be “normal”, they are as unique as God would have them be.
Unfortunately, despite ours and our neighbor’s diligence in trying to preserve this rare and beautiful creature, we failed. There were people around our rural area that just didn’t the same way. And by the following year the white deer had a bounty on her head by some local trophy hunters.
I do not call them hunters because they do not take a life to eat and be useful. They are only in it for the thrill of the hunt and the head mounted on the wall and a hide to perhaps throw on the floor. I have no use for these individuals.
It was a sad and dark day when one of them shot the white deer on protected private property. A neighbor to the ranch, hearing the gunshot, called the authorities. The authorities showed up so quickly that the trophy hunters ran without their trophy. The white deer was dead. The white deer was laid to rest while we and fellow neighbors mourned. Such a rare and beautiful loss. We have not seen a deer with her coloring or markings, before nor since.
