Valentine

    For the past 10 days we've had a convalescing deer just outside our dining room window.  She has four legs but three feet.  We noticed her on Feb. 10 and thought 'how sweet! We have a deer napping!'  But by the next day when she hadn't moved at all we got worried that she could be injured and dying.  I called a couple of conservation people and was told she might have been hit by a car or bleeding internally or has a broken leg and she settled where she feels safe.  I thought that if she had any of those she could not have climbed up the hill/cliff to our house. 

     As a test I went outside.  She jumped up when she saw me and I was told that was a good sign. She wasn't dying imminently if she was alert enough to jump up when she saw me.  Then I saw her leg and loss of hoof.  I was told there are many, many three legged deer in the forests and woods and if she is going to make it she has to figure it out.  If she doesn't figure it out she won't make it.  That's nature.
     My concern was that she was suffering and dying and it was happening slowly right in front of our eyes, literally not 30 feet from the house.  I didn't want her to suffer if she was going to die.  Again, I was told she has to figure it out.  Oh, and don't feed her.
     There's this thing called "wasting disease" that some of the deer in Michigan have, but not in our county, and they pass it on to each other by congregating so don't feed her.

     I DO feed the birds and because we live in the forest the squirrels are bold and brassy and do anything possible to get at the bird feeders.  There are lots of them, eight outside the window right this minute, running around everywhere.

     I feed the squirrels to keep them away from the bird feeders.  I have a squirrel feeder attached to a tree but usually one fat little one will sit inside the bottle and no one else eats.  So for years I've scattered one cup of feed on the ground for the others. It's the only thing that keeps them away from the bird feeders.
    In the past a deer, usually a brave one, will very occasionally discover this sprinkle of corn.  I've shown pictures of that before.  Well, OUR deer, our injured deer, discovered the corn sprinkle, too. She hobbled over one morning and ate it up, then the next day she seemed to be not so hungry and ventured down the hill where we could see her forage from trees.
    We took that as a good sign.  She CAN go down and up the hill but she won't step on that leg.  She goes out into the woods and stays most of the day.  One day another deer came up here and walked right by her.  She never moved a muscle. 

    Yesterday morning we had 18 deer out there - eighteen!   They wandered about the little bit of yard we have, they moved over to our deer (PH named her Valentine) and they stayed with her the whole morning then moved on.  You can see her laying at the base of the tree.
    Yet, she stays with us.  One of the conservationists told me she found someplace she feels safe. She IS figuring it out and maybe that's her herd. We can only wait now to see if she has adopted US.