Snoozing Baby Fawns
May 30, 2008
After spending Friday night of Memorial Day weekend busy on many fronts (Tim with Benton at his season opening double-header baseball games and I, with Alana and Carson, helping to host a block party for 30 or so neighbors.) We got up on Saturday, packed up, and headed to the farm in West Virginia. We arrived in time to hear about the baby deer they had located sitting by the High Point. So off I went with Brett, Meg and Carson to take a look. When we arrived, we discovered the fawn was gone. Apparently, the mother hides the fawn in leaves during the day and heads out. She returns later for her baby. Instinctively, the fawn remains very still, so as not to be seen in the woods. In all my years at the farm, I had never been aware that this was how the fawn spent its early days.
On the second night at the farm, Tim and Benton headed up to the cabin to sleep. Benton really wanted to walk back to the farm house in the morning, a 10-15 minute walk. So, on Monday morning they ventured out from the cabin, taking a path through the woods rather than along the road. On their walk, they found another hidden fawn. After getting packed up to head back home, we drove up to the woods and ventured down to find the fawn. He was still sleeping soundly, motionless in the leaves.
I cannot say the same for my children on the 3-and-a-half hour trip back to our house, but there is a lot to be said for 5-point-harness type car seats and seatbelts to help keep them in the same spot, although far from motionless.
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