Detecting Danger

It became apparent to me that Daisy was in labor on the first day of June. We had not seen much of her with the ruckus of dogs on the loose over the past few months, so I was surprised to spot her down at the feeder that morning, standing in a gentle rain. Donning my boots and a rain jacket, I walked down to pet her and pulled a few ticks off of her face. Nonchalantly, I moved to her rear to have a look at her udder and vaginal area. Sure enough, all signs indicated Daisy would soon have her babies. Rain was in the forecast for the next two days and just like every other year Daisy delivered babies, she would again have them in the rain. This always made sense to me, since rain would wash away any signs and smells of a birthing, thus offering the mother and babies a natural kind of protection from predators.

Daisy deer stands in the rain to have a bit of corn. That’s Buddy the squirrel beside her. Squirrels are such opportunists – nibbling up the droppings!

Later in the afternoon, Daisy returned. This time, I saw her from the kitchen window. She stood in the clover patch, intently watching the neighbor’s backyard. Several times she lifted her nose to catch scent. After a time, she sauntered towards her old deer pen, at which I felt a tinge of sadness. For the first time since we had raised Daisy, the gates to her pen were closed. Soon, Emma deer would inhabit those quarters, where Daisy would normally have used the pen to hide her own babies. But this year, we could not risk Daisy’s reaction to Emma (just in case it was not a friendly meeting), or taking the chance of shutting Emma in the pen with one of Daisy’s new babies unknowingly hidden inside. As these thoughts rolled through my mind, Daisy nosed the gate to her pen. I walked away feeling terrible about keeping her out of the place that had meant safety to her for the last five years.

Daisy will be eating a lot of clover over the next three months while nursing her babies.

Daisy hears the neighbor’s dogs barking.

Daisy’s belly looks like someone’s little leg is poking around in there!

Daisy catches scent on the breeze. She knows danger exists on the other side of the fence. Our neighbor’s yard has always been the place she chose to birth her young. But with seven dogs on the property, it would not be a safe place at all this year.

Daisy is at full alert watching the dogs play in the distance.

Finally, Daisy turned away from her focus on her traditional birthing ground in the neighbor’s backyard, sauntered towards the slope, and then took off in a gallop down the hill, headed west and then north into the pecan orchard where I lost sight of her. I wondered where she would go to have her babies, but had no doubt that she had a place in mind. And, after losing all but one of her twins in the last four years, I wondered if her chances might not be better elsewhere. At least, I certainly hoped they would be…

© 2016 Day by Day the Farm Girl Way…