New Digs Outdoors

Adding Ronnie deer to our household last week, caused us to change up our entire daily routine. Normally, FD and I got up at 6:00 each morning. While FD showered and dressed for work, I took care of our aging dogs – letting them outside to do their bathroom business, cooking breakfast for them, doling out their medicine, applying eye treatments to Zoe and Bear, and then kicking into gear to get FD’s and my breakfast ready by seven o’clock. This timing allowed FD and I about twenty minutes to visit, watch news, and eat before he headed off to work.  When orphaned Emma deer arrived, I took care of Emma’s feeding before I let the dogs outside, while FD showered. I often got up just a little earlier to accomplish everything I needed to do.  But it became painfully evident last weekend that, as much as I had hoped he would, Ronnie was just not going to wait for his breakfast until Emma was finished feeding – and it was total mayhem trying to feed them both by myself. Adding to the chaos, both fawns had chosen to sleep in our bedroom at night. Emma settled in our walk-in closet while little Ronnie opted to sleep in Daisy’s old dog bed by his mama’s side of the bed. So, no matter how quietly I tried to escape in the mornings to get dressed and start mixing and warming formula, both fawns immediately got up and began crying for milk. With this, we had no choice but to transition to a new morning schedule, which meant both FD and I would get up at 5:15 to feed Ronnie and Emma so that both of us could get on with our normal preparation for the day. This worked rather well, except Emma and Ronnie liked to frolic and play after breakfast and I found myself putting most of the dogs needs off until after I had served FD breakfast. In the wild, the mama deer spends time with her fawns (separately if there is more than one) grooming and sometimes bedding down with them, so I could not just feed Emma and Ronnie and immediately run off to tend to my other morning tasks. As a result, letting the dogs outside was all I managed to accomplish for them until the fawns were bedded back down, and FD was off to work.

Ronnie and Emma in a dark corner of the guest bedroom. This was their normal resting place during the day.

Emma and Ronnie kick up their hooves running down the rug runway from room to room!

Our three elderly Japanese Chin awaiting breakfast, medications and eye treatments. They are completely disinterested in Emma and Ronnie!

After Ronnie arrived and we kept Emma inside to keep him company, Emma was often found looking out of the bedroom window.

Deer do not like being picked up or held! I have some nasty bruises to show for that! FD built a ramp for Emma so we could get her to the deer pen and back without the struggle of holding her in our arms. And Zoe and Bear love the ease of use too. Mr. T is still scared of the ramp (as usual… he’s scared of just about everything).

I was thankful that we had introduced Emma to the garden and deer pen two weeks before. Because of that, she was acclimated to the lush, tall weeds in the deer pen, and had already been trained to have her bottle of formula in the barn. It really took no training at all for her to learn to leap in and out of the barn door – just the sight of her mama carrying a bottle into the barn, and Emma was a pro in no time. In fact, Emma seemed to be progressing so quickly, it was as if she were an old soul who had done this all before. She had been so good this past week to soothe little Ronnie, who was stressed from the combine accident and trip to the veterinarian. In a lot of ways, Emma was just like a little mother to Ronnie. Many times, I saw her grooming him or instigating play in the house. Emma was a self-starter from the get go. Early on, she seemed interested in nibbling clover that FD picked and brought inside, and she ate dirt from a little pan on the floor. And now Ronnie was learning from his big sister. FD and I could not believe how easy Emma made the transition for Ronnie, as he adjusted to having to move in with all of us.

Emma keeps an eye on those noisy neighbors… the chickens!

Emma is a self-starter. She started nibbling on greens and dirt all by herself.

We planted all sorts of deer-friendly plants in the deer pen two years ago. The chicory has grown to six feet tall or more! I love the delicate blue flowers it puts off.

View of the deer pen from our house.

All was well with our household menagerie until late last week, when I discovered Emma had begun urinating on her own. Fortunately, it was no big problem, as I had several washable incontinence pads in her favorite sleeping places (something I learned from raising Daisy), but it did mean that soon she would be squatting to pee wherever she liked. I remembered when Daisy started squatting… the first time was right in the middle of the living room carpet and it seemed like she eliminated buckets of urine! I was not about to have that happen again, so FD and I decided yesterday that Emma and Ronnie would have to go to the deer pen, where they could bed down in nests of hay in the barn at night. Ronnie was still very small to be out of the house, but Emma had been so good for him, we knew we could not separate the two of them now. Ronnie would be lost without his big sister.

Emma showing Ronnie the outskirts of the pen.

Emma knows her way around the deer pen vegetation.

The deer pen already had a resident, but I’m sure Emma and Ronnie won’t mind a bit!

Emma is always near, reassuring her little brother.

Ronnie gets more courageous about the giant, green plants.

Ronnie keeps looking back to assure himself we are still there.

Ronnie was found injured  in a wheat field. I wonder if he is intrigued by the green plants?

Ronnie checks out the barn door entry.

Emma beds down in her favorite spot after having a run-in with the fence, leaving a big bump and swelling under her left eye. She got carried away running and leaping and crashed into the fence. Daisy had a couple run-ins herself before she learned her limitations in the fenced area. We are planning to put mesh screening along the fence for added shade and to create a visual barrier for the deer.

Ronnie isn’t too sure about Mama being on the other side of the fence.

Reading back over old notes I made when we raised Daisy deer, I was reminded how I fretted and worried about her being alone outdoors in the night without her mama. I remembered much of my stress was lessened when injured Holly deer came along and Daisy had a companion to keep her company. This time, it was indeed a blessing to know Emma was already comfortable in the pen and barn, and Ronnie would have his big sister to lead him and comfort him. For the first night in several weeks, I slept wonderfully last night knowing they would be fine together – and not being awakened by the sound of Ronnie crying, or Emma deciding to take a little romp in the bedroom at two o’clock in the morning.

When FD and I went outdoors to feed them just before sun-up this morning, we found Emma lying in her hay nest in the barn, with Ronnie bedded down just a short distance away in a heap of pine shavings. Neither fawn rose up until I made the “mama” call for milk – a noise I learned from Daisy when she called her hidden fawns to come to nurse. FD and I smiled at each other while I held onto two bottles being jerked and shaken by hungry Emma and Ronnie, and FD began initiating their bathroom business. As a gentle breeze blew through the barn door, we took in the fresh morning air and the sounds of exuberant sucking, little hoof stomps, and tiny little mews for more milk when the bottles were emptied. And all was right in our world, as the sun came up on the Ten Acre Ranch…

© 2016 Day by Day the Farm Girl Way…