Yesterday morning I went out to check the garden. What had happened during the night? Any new tomatoes? Peppers? Damage from armadillos (looking for grub worms)? Any more nibbling of the vines growing up the trellis from deer on the outside?
What I was not expecting to find was an intruder in the compost. As I took a pitchfork to turn the pile, I spotted movement behind the volunteer vine growing out of the compost (can't tell yet if it is going to be a zucchini, a pumpkin, or something else.) So I carefully lifted a hairy leaf (which I swear was a foot wide) and found a little brown body nestled in the compost. A brown body with white spots on the back. A rabbit, I thought! But what kind of rabbit has white spots? So I looked again, and the little fawn stared me right in the face and started crying! A fawn the size of a rabbit! He (or she) was struggling mightily to get back through the mesh of the fence whence he had entered. I made a dash for the house to grab the camera. When I returned the fawn was gone. Don't know if I was disappointed or relieved. Who ever knew a new-born fawn was that tiny?
2 comments:
Oh my word. Do you think he'll imprint now on your place?
I found a newborn on my front porch one evening when I went out to snip some basil. Mama had put her there for safety while she recovered and fed after birthing him. She didn't even twitch as I approached. She looks barely bigger than the 4" pots around her. We switched off the lights and by midnight she'd disappeared.
For the last few years, a lone doe has hung around our acre as if we're home and I've always wondered if she was the porch baby.
That's a great story about the porch baby. I don't think my little fawn will identify with the compost pile!
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