Safer At Home

I should have expected Tukker, our newly released orphan deer, to incur a few wounds in his first weeks out in the wild. For orphaned youngsters like Tukker, it’s normal to see scratches from barbed wire fencing and a few hoof marks from being run off by some other fawn’s mother. However, Tukker’s barbed wire scratches were deep and ripped a lot of hair from his back.

One morning as I walked with him along the fence line of the leased property to the west, I realized why Tukker’s barbed wire wounds were so deep. Tukker wasn’t gently dipping under the fences like I had seen many deer do, including Daisy, Emma, and Ronnie. Instead, Tukker was jumping right through them, between two of the wires. Tukker always has had to be different from all the other deer we’ve raised, and crossing fences was obviously another thing he was determined to do his own way.

A couple of days later when I spotted him following three other deer along the old river channel, I felt some hope that maybe he could learn to jump fences the way normal deer do. I spooked up the group of four, heard one give the “huffing” alert and all four turned to run, jumping the fence to the leased property. I was just sure Tukker was one of the fawns I saw in the group. Maybe he could learn to cross fences properly and safely by observing his new friends.

On February 5th we saw four to five inches of snow in the area. Tukker was extra frisky that morning! Later in the day the sun came out and by the next morning nearly all of the snow had vanished!

A deer’s upper lip and gums allow them to deftly maneuver plant matter into their mouth to be cut by lower teeth. From there it is moved back to the molars for a few chomps and a quick swallow. Later, during the rumination process, or “chewing cud”, food returns from the first stomach to the mouth to be chewed for the second time. There are no top teeth. Here, Tukker greeted me on my way to do chicken chores, hoping for a few slices of apple or a carrot!

Tukker often hung around in the areas of the feeders down below the slope, waiting for his bachelor buddies (yearling bucks) to gather in the evenings.

A fella has to keep himself groomed you know.

Our neighbor’s dogs are kept in a fenced yard near his house. Tukker seems to know they can’t get to him. He tolerates their barking… and somehow I wonder if he enjoys taunting them. Sweet Boy and Bob Barker go crazy when Tukker is bedded down nearby.

Chase is a brother to Sweet Boy and Bob Barker. Chase isn’t quite as vocal as the other two.

There are a lot of good eats in this shaded area on the other side of the fence. Our yard is much too groomed to keep a hungry boy happy for very long.

But then just a week later, Tukker came home with an apparent puncture wound and missing hair on his right, rear flank.  Over the next few days, it became infected and rather angry-looking, so I cleaned it daily, but there was little else to do. Concerned the wound wasn’t healing, I conferred with Wildcare, a larger rehabilitation facility about an hour from here. The vet on staff looked at photos of the wound that I emailed to him and said, because of Tukker’s age and already being a little too frisky and wild to allow our local vet to examine him or deep clean the wound, he felt continuing to keep the wound clean, as we had been, was about all we could do. He was quite reassuring that the discoloration of the skin and the type of oozing coming from the wound was actually a good sign and part of the normal healing process.

As we continued to monitor Tukker via various game cameras on the property, we felt he had likely been gouged in play or possibly while being run off by another buck. The more we looked at the injury, the more it looked like an antler gouge. We had noticed Tukker hanging with a few yearling bucks at night down at the feeders, and sometimes saw him in the early morning daylight hours way down on the west end of the orchard, grazing and playing with other young deer.

A few weeks later, FD spotted him near the river while looking for antler sheds one morning. I felt especially good about this, knowing many deer traveled this area of the woods. Here, Tukker would be in good company and would have an excellent opportunity to learn the ways of his own kind. But apparently, the pull of suddenly finding your dad in the woods won over being with friends, and Tukker followed FD home that afternoon. And, for whatever reason, Tukker has been staying close to home ever since that day.

Tukker made friends with this young buck for a few weeks. Tukker showed him the crimson clover patch I keep around each year in hopes some of our kids and their friends return for a bit of nibbling.

Tukker knows he can see us through the kitchen window. He feels safe enough to doze there. And you should feel safe with your mama nearby!

There go my blackberry leaves. Deer (and all wildlife) love the berries too.

Tukker loves to sit atop the knoll off of the rim of the canyon in our neighbor’s backyard. Ms. Foxy can often be found sitting in the same location. Can you find Tukker in the photo?

Up closer near the rock house and behind the old deer pen, Tukker feasts on Quince leaves and flowers.

Our next-door neighbor has a woolly backyard. Tukker finds all sorts of good eats here.

Nap time is very important. I sat next to Tukker for little awhile after taking this photo. The leaf-covered ground was soft – perfect for a nap! Too bad the gnats were out in full force or I would have stayed longer.

Nice shade and good cover make an excellent spot to ruminate.

Our governor issued the COVID-19 “Safer At Home” order on March 24th. It has been since then and maybe a bit earlier, that Tukker seemed content enough to stay close to home as well. Each day I spot him over in our neighbor’s back yard. Steve’s yard has always been wild and woolly, and the other deer we’ve raised loved to venture over there too, despite the ferocious barking of Steve’s three dogs.

It seems Steve’s yard is an enchanted forest to all wild things. I’ve seen Ms. Foxy raise her kits there. Punkin, our orphaned squirrel has raised babies down in the bottom on Steve’s place. And our first orphaned deer, Daisy, always had her babies over on Steve’s property. His yard has every kind of cover, and ever kind of edible a young deer could hope to see. In fact, just yesterday I discovered there are even two Gum bumelia (see previous post) trees back there!

I guess, if a young deer who is free to roam wild feels “Safer at Home”, then dad gummit, home must be the place to be!

Every evening Tukker sits near our back porch, just atop the slope. From there he can watch for his friends to come in from the woodlands to get water at the wildlife tub and nibble some Antlermax at the feeders.

There is a bounty of good food in the woodlands now that spring has arrived.

Many mornings I find Tukker in the middle of Steve’s backyard. He’s always bedded down facing our front yard and towards his old deer pen.

I found two Gum bumelia trees in Steve’s backyard! This one is small but looks quite healthy!

Deer are good at reaching for browse up high. Tukker’s appetite has increased in the last couple of weeks. Growing antlers takes serious nutrition!

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