So here I am, sleeping away a perfectly fine Hill Country early summer morning, and I hear this, apparently right outside the bedroom window. Well, if you want to get a look at one of the fawns, you generally have to be quick about it -- once they detect noise, Mom puts tail-up and they're outta there. So I roll over and hear 'ftoom, ftoom, ftoom'. Gone. OK, show's over, back to bed.
'Naaaaah!'
WTF? Still there? Ouch! Somehow it's managed to stick its head into a hole in the wire fence nearby -- into, but not out of. Oh boy. I run up there. It's really twisted up (both legs around the ears, apparently to try to push the wire away.) Can I manually move the wire? Nope, not enough. 'Fttttm'. Yes, Mom, I hear you nearby. Run back to the house. 'Naaaaaaaah!' Yeah, I know, you want Mom and are in mortal terror. Back with small wireclippers. Don't struggle, critter, you're just hurting yourself. I know, it's just instinct. Dammit! No go. Off to the shop for the Big wire cutters. Damn, that hill's steep. OK, OK, calm down, let's free those legs. Ah, ok, they aren't tangled, that's good. How about a cut here? No? Here? No? H .... (whoosh. gone). Phew.
They're pretty, but they're not so smart. At least this one will end up in a better place than that one that was in the middle of Cuernavaca yesterday. A few abrasions should be survivable. As for ever wanting anything to do with humans again? ... Naaaaah.
Posted by mark at June 23, 2004 11:43 AMOh, they are smart in a way - but they just haven't had the time to adapt (evolutionary) to wire fences. I guess the fence looks like just another bush or vine or something, only with an odd color, and they've never had any problems hopping through vines, have they now?
I think the 'smart' part comes right at the end - the part where this particular fawn will not ever want anything to do with humans again :) Much to our chagrin and loss, the fawn is mostly right in this case - 'mostly' since there are people who do indeed care about them, like you've done right there.
Posted by: Peter Pentchev on June 25, 2004 07:01 AM