Tuesday, August 20, 2019

Does It Take a Village?


Some months ago, a neighbor posted on the neighborhood board (called NextDoor) that a mother deer had two fawns in her back yard. But only a few days later, the mother and one of the fawns disappeared, likely moved themselves to a more discreet grazing area.

The thing was, they left one fawn behind. Despite not approaching it and waiting for the mother to return for it, the newborn fawn was still there and still alone.


The neighbors mobilized with advice. Call animal control. Don’t call animal control. Call a vet. Follow what the vet says. Get bottles and formula and feed it. Don’t feed it. Do. Don’t. Do.




The neighbor began feeding the fawn. The fawn seemed to gain strength. The neighbor posted pictures. Who doesn’t melt at the sight of Bambi? Turned out Bambi was a she, and we collectively named her Bambina. We looked for daily updates and photos, and cheered for every new morning light that showed Bambina was still there. Donations of blankets and formula and money poured, but mostly it was a steady stream of advice that flowed and made us a village.


And then she began to fail. She was clearly sick. More advice, prayers and tears.

Then one day, Bambina passed away to the great grazing field in the sky, and a whole neighborhood cried.


Only weeks ago, this happened again. Only this was an abandoned newborn feral kitten. This time, it was a he, and the rescuer named him Alfie. Many adoption offers and donations later, and the rescuer has made Alfie, now an energetic love-bug of a cat, part of her household.


There’s a saying that it takes a village to raise a child. These real neighborhood stories made me think of how these children made us a village, but it took one compassionate neighbor to do the work.



20 comments:

Tina Cho said...

What a nice community you have! And what fun to rescue a deer and kitty! Maybe this is a plot for a story!

Mirka Breen said...

In some ways everything is a plot for a story. In this case, at least for telling it here. ;)

Kelly Hashway said...

That’s a great community of caring people. Thank you for sharing this.

Mirka Breen said...

Thank you for visiting, Kelly.

Vijaya said...

Oh, Mirka, what beautiful, caring neighbors! But poor Bambina :( I'm so glad Alfie made it. He'll be a fat cat for sure!

Mirka Breen said...

It's amazing how we can get so virtually attached :,(

janlcoates said...

The writer in me wonders what happened that the mama deer and one fawn disappeared...

Mirka Breen said...

I get it. The writer in me is torn between making up a story for them and living with the mystery.

Evelyn said...

Love the pictures and the story of your caring neighborhood.

Karen Jones Gowen said...

It makes me wonder if the mother knew the fawn was sick and that's why she left it behind. But heartwarming just the same, glad the little kitty made it!

Mirka Breen said...

The scenario you suggest, Karen, is one that occurred to me. It takes the narrative theme of "nature knows best" and fits with the neighbors who felt that the faun should not be fed by humans. But then, the kitten was also abandoned by his mother.
I see it as a "one never knows for sure, so let us try."

Mirka Breen said...

When folks get together, even virtually, it is uplifting.

Barbara Etlin said...

You've got great, caring neighbours!

For an apparently* abandoned owlet, it's best to call a local rehabilitator. *(Sometimes the mother comes back, and the owlet wasn't abandoned at all.) An owlet can become imprinted on humans if found at an impressionable age. I don't know whether fauns and kittens have that problem.

Mirka Breen said...

I'll remember this if an owlet finds its way to our neck of the urban woods. I suspect this is the case for all birds.

Susan Flett Swiderski said...

What a lovely post! I wandered over here after reading your "invitation" on Alex's post on the IWSG blog. It's nice to meet you.

It's hard to resist an abandoned critter, isn't it? Personally, I don't think we should try to resist. If we can help... we should try.

Janie Junebug said...

Maybe Mama left the fawn because she knew Bambina couldn't make it. It's lovely that the neighborhood comes together to help. My neighborhood is like that.

Love,
Janie

Mirka Breen said...

I agree that if you feel called to help you shouldn't resist <3

Mirka Breen said...

To me, the surprise was the virtual (not physical door-to-door) connectedness.

MirkaK said...

It's often a hard call what to do when you see an animal in distress or think that's the case. Sometimes I'm able to help and other times I know I'm not supposed to do anything but observe Nature just the way she is.

As a seal docent on the north coast, I was trained not to interfere. People who don't know better think they're doing a good deed when they see a seal pup alone and scoop it up. But that can spell disaster. It might be that its mom is out fishing. Imagine how she feels when she returns to the beach and finds her newborn gone! This has happened up here. A man picked up a pup from the beach, put it in the back of his pickup, thinking he was showing his young daughter an act of compassion. But it turned out not to be.

It's not easy standing on the bluff watching and hearing a lone pup cry and slowly die because mom has disappeared, maybe because of a shark, maybe because she wasn't ready to be a mother, maybe because she sensed this pup was not ultimately viable. But we're not allowed to go down and disturb the colony. If there's a time when it's possible to do so--when all the other seals and pups are somewhere else--then a rescue is allowed for an injured or otherwise needy seal. When humans touch creatures in the wild, our smell might keep them from rejoining their group.

Mirka Breen said...

The hardest thing may be to do nothing and just witness.