Through the Fence

I am not trying to be mean here, but this year’s crop of fawn deer are knuckleheads.  To be fair, you can say this about fawns every year.  All fawns work on a learning curve for the first four seasons of life.  Dealing with fences is particularly tricky.

On a drive home from town yesterday (of all things I needed vinegar), I approached six whitetail deer crossing from one side of a secondary highway to the other.  Four does and two fawns.  I also saw fences on either side of the road.

I have seen this game before.  If I tried to roll past them, at any speed, the fawns would panic.  This might spur them directly back into my path or cause them to lunge headlong into the fence.  Since I was the only car on the highway, I stopped well short of the deer.

The does finished crossing the highway and sprang over the fence.  The two fawns stopped short.  They paced back and forth in agitation.  One of the moms stopped on the other side of the fence, waiting.

“Come on, kids,” I said.

One of the fawns launched at the fence. 

The fence rejected it.

The second fawn seeing this, trotted down the fenceline a distance, saw an opening between strand wires, and dove through straightaway.

“We can all learn together,” I suggested.

The once-rejected fawn paced back and forth a bit more, finally found an opening, and then dove through.

I rolled on.

—Mitchell Hegman