With fond homage to and memories of Dr. Seuss, our cat who played with hats went a few years ago to that great attic in the sky where the mice are never-ending and can’t run very fast.

We did, however, just experience a Fawn On The Lawn!

Trying to catch up from serious lost time due to a major computer problem, I have about lived in front of the monitor for weeks! Editing photos, creating listings! Upload, download, when I finally have reached Milady’s chamber, I’ve been absolutely beat! Working at the computer all the live-long day, my life had become something other than my own!

I love it when customers send sweet thoughts and nice notes. I just received such an adorable one, refreshingly reminding me to take time to be like a butterfly, looking for the sweetness in life, taking time to smell the flowers and catch a breeze.

With those thoughts in mind, I’ve forced myself out of the house, actually enjoying the roses and pulling weeds in the garden, and mowing the grass. It was on one of those mindless circling sojourns atop the riding mower over our extended lawn, with the deer flies tricked by hot metal into attacking the engine instead of me, that I noticed a small lump of brown in the grass just ahead under a tree – a branch of dead leaves that had fallen?

I couldn’t tell what it was until I was nearly over it – a tiny, spotted fawn, curled up small enough that it would have fit into a dishpan. It couldn’t have been more than a day or two old. In russet brown with white spots and flashes of black, it was perfectly camouflaged in the bright sun and shadows dappling the grass.

Brand new fawns are left by their mothers, which need time away to forage so they can produce rich milk. Baby deer, too frail to run from danger at this age, instinctively understand their best defense is to hide, remaining absolutely motionless. This little one must have been read the riot act by Mom, it flattened its ears, closed its eyes and refused to move despite what must have been the horrendously frightening noise of our tractor/mower thundering closer and closer.

I immediately left the area, finished mowing on the other side of the house, and my husband and I kept track of it for the rest of the afternoon. If you find a fawn like this, realize that they are commonly left for hours on end (our Mama Doe finally appeared at dusk). Their mothers almost always are hovering in the immediate vicinity, keeping track without showing themselves. The absolute best thing to do is to stay away and leave the little one alone, so it will be reunited with its mother. Don’t pick it up or pet it, because you will get dreaded human scent on it.

However, that doesn’t mean you can’t take pictures, which I did and they are just so appealing I have to share them !!

Written by by Jane Silvernail

Time’s Treasures Railroad and Country on Ruby Lane