I feel so sad.... theres a small herd of deers that every night and every early morning comes through our yard...esp during winter, I throw up some stale bread near their trails so they have a snack to eat on thier way to and from. Well the biggest doe, I call the Matriarch...she iS the leader after all, is HUGE. Biggest doe i've ever seen as a matter of fact. She's always got a small herd of youngsters with her (atleast 5)...I don't know if she collects them or what but every winter it's always yearlings with her. She actually had two fawns and hid them in our yard a few years ago a buckling and a doeling. I highly doubt all of them are her own fawns but what do I know.
Anyhow...they are so used to seeing us, that they'll flag at me, but they won't run away...just keep doing what they're doing but flagging to let me know they see me. If i keep on them and walk towards them then they'll trot off. Well tonight our nosey neighbor called ot say there was deer in our backyard...well duh there always is....but to humor her I took my cocker spaniel out to potty and saw the deers.....all i saw was several youngsters...no Matriarch......and then i heard a groan....ever seen the movie Prancer? The groans prancer does is the groans I was hearing. I looked up into the woods, and several yards away was Matriarch....I thought she just tripped when I first saw her, but she kept "tripping" and then i realized both of her front legs were broken.
Every time she lifted her one front leg to put pressure on the snow to move again she'd groan. My mom had told me about deer crying when they get hit by cars...but this wasnt a cry or a bleat this was a groan, almost like a buck grunt.
If it wasnt for my mom and the neighbor I would have ran inside and got my gun and put her out of her misery. All I can really hope is that her injuries are so severe she just passes instead of suffering dragging herself around. I'd contact the game commission, but we've called them before about deer and nothing ever seems to be done (now if its bear...something is done).
It breaks my heart to know that I highly doubt Matriarch will make it through the rest of this winter....and if these yearlings don't keep up her ritual of going through our yard we may miss out on that from now on.
If the shock from obvoiusly being hit by a car (or like my mom suggested falling) doesnt kill her, the coytoes will.
*sigh* They bed right up in our woods every night so I'll have to go up tomorrow and see if she's up there.
Anyhow...they are so used to seeing us, that they'll flag at me, but they won't run away...just keep doing what they're doing but flagging to let me know they see me. If i keep on them and walk towards them then they'll trot off. Well tonight our nosey neighbor called ot say there was deer in our backyard...well duh there always is....but to humor her I took my cocker spaniel out to potty and saw the deers.....all i saw was several youngsters...no Matriarch......and then i heard a groan....ever seen the movie Prancer? The groans prancer does is the groans I was hearing. I looked up into the woods, and several yards away was Matriarch....I thought she just tripped when I first saw her, but she kept "tripping" and then i realized both of her front legs were broken.
If it wasnt for my mom and the neighbor I would have ran inside and got my gun and put her out of her misery. All I can really hope is that her injuries are so severe she just passes instead of suffering dragging herself around. I'd contact the game commission, but we've called them before about deer and nothing ever seems to be done (now if its bear...something is done).
It breaks my heart to know that I highly doubt Matriarch will make it through the rest of this winter....and if these yearlings don't keep up her ritual of going through our yard we may miss out on that from now on.
If the shock from obvoiusly being hit by a car (or like my mom suggested falling) doesnt kill her, the coytoes will.
