A Surprise Rescue and Release of a Mule Deer
The plan was to go out to dinner for Martin’s Birthday after Susan got home from work and Martin from Hawking.
Once home, they let Cody outside to play frisbee. After Susan threw in it several times, Martin took over while Susan cleaned up dog messes. After spending ten minutes in the front yard, Susan neared the far corner near the pine tree and large rehab chamber and heard something moving. She turned around and saw a mule deer running away from her toward Martin and the gate.
Where the heck did it come from?
It must have been laying very quietly by the tree and they didn’t even notice it in the yard. Cody didn’t notice it either until it ran past them. Martin examined the young deer checking for injuries. It was cut up a bit around the face. It could not have gotten into their fenced front yard by itself so they figured it may have been hit by a car and was stunned or in shock. Thankfully, no serious injuries and someone decided to bring it to the foundation. Since no one was home, put it in the front yard.
Martin put it into the large connecting chamber and decided since it was not seriously injured the best thing would be to release it to the winter range where it could find plenty of food and join another herd. I- 15 and the main street in Cedar City are major problems for the deer trying to migrate from summer mountain range to winter feed, and many get hit every fall, winter and spring. If kept in captivity and as it felt better it would injure itself worse so we drove it out to winter range and released it.
