Week 7, home at last!

Well! My last week was a hand full!!

First, 4 of the does in the pen had their fawns! Chatter, O4, Tinker, Maybeline, and C.B. (who had triplets.) When Chatter had her fawns, we took one fawn (Cake) who we were trying to hand raise (but she wouldn't take to the bottle) and gave her to Chatter. Chatter immediately began to care for Cake. Tinker, Maybeline and C.B. all had their fawns in the past 48 hours. Tinker's doe fawn was pulled to be hand raised, as Tinker is too crazy. C.B. had three buck fawns one was pulled because he wasn't eating so well. Both of O4's fawns were pulled because she was not taking good care of them. We named the buck Tank and his sister scooter. Maybeline and Chatter very tame, so their fawns will stay with them. And while this is the first time that they have seen Maybeline raise fawns (she aborted her fawns last year) I think that she will be a good mother. Today when I walked the pen to check on everyone, she was surrounded by 5 fawns and was tending to all of them!

Since the past few days have been very hot and stressful for the deer, we have been putting out sprinklers to help them stay cool. They will run and play in the falling water and will also lay in the cool mud. We also put one in the fawn pen to help them stay cool as well. Its fun to watch the little ones run and jump in the water. The sprinklers have to be moved often to make sure that the ground doesn't get to muddy. Friday was so hot, that we had to take several of the fawns that were in the doe pen, inside with the A.C as their temps were way to high. One we even ran fluids to, to make sure that he was hydrated.

We have also received a new fawn from a customer this past week, Y933. She is doing very well, and has been moved to the three hour eating schedule. Another fawn the we are now raising, is the tiniest fawn in the pen. Her name is Bonnie, and when she first arrived, she was only 2.25 lbs! Being so small, we were unsure that she would even make it through the first 24 hours. But she immediately latched on to the bottle and is now a week old and 3lbs 11 oz!! I have a picture of her in my hat!

This internship, while much shorter than intended, feels like it was very long, and I am very tired. It is good to be home at last. I never truly felt like I belonged there at Fawn Country. I still want to work with animals, but this particular job is not for me. I would rather raise a wild animal only to return it to the wild, as opposed to keeping it in a pen for the rest of its life. And while this internship is not something I would do for a living, it did help me narrow down my options for my future. I now have a better idea of what I would like to do for a career.

It is good to be home!

~peace!