I had a dozen bad images in my head of this thing panicking as we approached it! Would I be on my way to the wildlife rehabilitation emergency facility a couple hours away soon? How hurt was this poor thing? I mean, stuck in the fence sounds pretty serious ... especially when I saw my dad grab huge wire cutters. Was the fawn's mom still near by? Was I about to get kicked with those nasty hooves? Agh!
As if I wasn't worked up enough, the sight of this poor thing just made my heart sink even more ... he must have jumped over the fence (and made it) when something went wrong. He was hanging upside-down by one hind leg with his body resting on the ground, but twisted so his head was laying between the fence and his own side. To top it all off, I felt awful because I had no idea how long that poor fawn had been hanging there because my dad had been inside watching TV for hours (when normally he'd be outside or in the garage near the horse pen working on stuff) because he was so awful today (he can get really destructive when trying to "fix" things).
I had grabbed the wire cutters from my dad on the walk through the one pen for our horses and told him to go turn off the electric tape that runs along most of the fence and to maybe consider getting the neighbor ... basically, I just didn't want my dad over there and upsetting the poor fawn further.
I was terrified as the approached the fawn. With the way the fawn was hanging there, so still and for who knows how long, I was shocked he was still alive! No time to space, I cut the fence and he didn't move at all. However, it wasn't as simple as just cutting the one fence wire loop. The fawn had fought so hard to free himself, he'd wedged his little leg into one corner and really pulled the fencing tight around him. For the next part, I'm lucky he didn't freak out and hurt us both! I had to pull on the wire and then grab that little munchkin's hoof and pull it out and away from the fence. Injuries-wise, the fawn had a cut on this leg, maybe an inch long, not too thick and thankfully not too deep. His leg was straight hanging there (didn't look broken) and he got right up and dashed off into the woods, so I'm hoping he's ok.
It was just a few minutes, but what a crazy day that made for! I hope that little fawn is ok tonight and his cut doesn't get infected. It's just such a shame because that damn metal fence has never actually caught a deer or fawn like that before and it's only around maybe 1/3 of our entire pen.
On another note: what a game, what a game tonight for the Flyers. I wish I had been there and yet with the way it actually ended, maybe not.
