This is the perfect way to start your day, with a good “aww” after you see a little speckled fawn being rehabilitated by a kind man. It all started with a man filming a deer in his backyard when he spotted something strange. She just gave birth to two fawns and one of them looked like it was in trouble. Minutes passed and the deer mother wouldn’t wait for her fawn, leaving it behind.
20. An Incredible Experience
He couldn’t just sit and watch, knowing that a newborn animal without his mom wouldn’t survive. So he got closer and we can definitely agree that it was the beginning of a one-of-a-kind experience he’ll never forget.
Darius Sasnauskas is surrounded by nature and a lot of animals – wild and pets. He lives very close to Yellowstone National Park, and he has a lot of dogs and cats that he cares for. One day, he was filming the surroundings to post them on his YouTube channel – Honeysada. That’s when he spotted the white-tailed deer that had previously gave birth to two little fawns right in his backyard.
Darius has a huge heart and a soft spot for animals, especially when it comes to those that are injured. He looked at the fawn that seemed to lag behind and wondered what was wrong. He knew that the two fawns were healthy, as he’d seen them several times in his backyard. That day however, he didn’t expect to become an animal rescuer…
The slower fawn was definitely injured, as he stumbled around to reach its mother. In an interview with The Dodo, Darius said that “The fawn was helpless. She was just born earlier that day, [and] still had some blood on her belly.” But the deer mother seemed to not lower her pace.
“With the injured leg, the baby fawn couldn’t keep up with her brother and mom,” said Darius in his video that he uploaded on his YouTube channel. The poor fawn was too tired to walk, so she sat down and that’s how it was abandoned by her mother. Darius knew he had to act because he knew the consequences if he were to leave the fawn there…
Darius warned that he doesn’t support “keeping wild animals as a pets, but this was [a] special situation.” The wild is a dangerous place for a newborn animal without her mother and the predators were very close. There were bears just behind the fence and foxes lurked around, waiting for an opportunity to arise!
Although death is also part of nature, Darius knew he had to help the little fawn at least until her leg was getting better. He’d later release her, the thought. But for now, he had to scoop up the baby fawn and take her home. His pets’ reaction was more than hilarious.
We all know cats love sitting in boxes, so when one of Darius’ cats saw a box, it slowly got closer to see what’s inside. At first, neither the cats nor the dogs knew what to make of this strange fragile creature. Soon enough, they’d become best buds!
After the first bottle of milk and a little time to adapt to the new surroundings, the small fawn got up to check out Darius’ pets who still tried to avoid the new furry animal. “She was very hungry and had no problem with any of my pets,” said Darius. In the first week, he said that “she slept by my bed on my shirt, and the shirt became very important to her.” Meanwhile, someone else got very close to the fawn.
“I had to do some Internet search and reading to be able to understand how to [raise] a fawn,” explained Darius who had no experience in dealing with the situation. He called the wildlife officials and they said that there’s no such sanctuary or shelter to heal and rehabilitate fawns. So he was on his own, or so he thought!
Darius used an oatmeal box as a splint to immobilize the injured leg, helping the fawn grow stronger. He had to get up at night to feed her every four hours and clean her. Soon enough, Darius witnesses an extraordinary moment he’ll never forget…
Darius’ intent was to rehabilitate the fawn and release it to the wild. That’s why he didn’t name her to avoid becoming to attached to her, knowing he had to let her go. He also tried to help as much as he could, so that the fawn could go back to the wild as soon as possible: “I really hoped that she did not get attached to me too much because that would make [it] very hard for her to survive in the wild. She would become [an] easy target for hunters and predators.”
Mack, one of the dogs’ instincts kicked in and he soon took the job as a foster dad, “helping” a lot during feeding time, cleaning the fawn and following her everywhere. He took his job serious and Darius was filming the entire moments: “Mack was [a] big help because he just loved her and cleaned her so good.”
While going outside to walk, run and play, Mack never lost sight of his foster baby. They bonded so well that the fawn even tried to suckle from the dog but had no success! While he did his best to be a real mom, Mack was not a deer. It was time for Darius to start looking for the fawn’s mother. She had to be close, but would she accept the baby? Would the fawn leave Darius’ side?
The fawn needed to live with her own family and she was ready to be set free. Darius hoped that the fawn’s mother was close because she had another baby she was caring for. In the video, Darius said that the fawn follows him everywhere, “but nobody can replace her real mom.”
Darius put the fawn in a box with the shirt she loved and went looking for the mother. For several evenings, Darius would return home with the fawn after it came back to him, although he did his best to hide in the field…
“Hopefully maybe one of the [deer] moms or maybe even her real mom’s gonna come, because she’s somewhere around with another baby,” he said in the video. Then, one day when Darius nearly gave up, something incredible happened…
Darius felt like a wildlife rehabilitator when he finally spotted one evening a deer with a fawn that was the same age as the injured one. The fawn ran to her mother and they have been together ever since. Months later, Darius spotted them in the field and in his backyard. He even got a heartwarming thank-you one day…
“[I’ve] seen [the family] many times after release, also seen them recently in the fall. The mother deer usually does not go too far from the place where she feels safe, so she stays around the area.” He filmed the three deer that day, and our heart completely melted when the fawn looked back at Darius for a few seconds, remembering him.
“I didn’t expect this story to become so popular. I am sure that any of us with a little bit of a conscience about our existence, with love for the nature and animals, would do the same,” concluded Darius. Thanks to his compassion, this doe has a new chance at life and our day just got better!
