According to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), few seemingly orphaned animals truly are.
The instinct to want to help an abandoned baby is natural, but most of the time, the mother will return. For a fawn who’d soon be named “Butter,” though, things were looking grim back in July of 2022.
At the time, Wanda Bowers, of Doty, and neighbors discovered Butter with a bloodied face and her mother was nowhere near.
“It sat there in my yard and cried for two days,” said Bowers, an 11-year Doty resident.
Bowers has rescued her share of cats, dogs and goats — but never a deer.
“She was a bloodied mess, I mean it had gotten into something,” she recalled. “It would have died. And you know? I called the humane society, I called the feed store. I called the sheriff’s department, state patrol, fish and game. … Nobody would get back to me. It really upset me. What do I do with a deer? I’ve never done this before.”
Bowers called on a Doty neighbor who’d been through a similar experience. He talked her through what was harmful to deer — according to WDFW, a diet abundant in fruits and grains is unhealthy and overly rich for wild ruminants such as deer and elk.
Bowers instead provided her new fawn friend with goat milk. Cows’ milk, she said, would have harmed the fawn. Nearly one year later, the deer still hangs around.
“She comes and goes as she pleases,” Bowers said.
Butters has a low spot along the fence where she hops over. She usually spends nights in Bowers’ yard alongside goats, cats and chickens. During the day, she’s become a local celebrity. Residents gave her the appropriate title of “The Doty Deer.”
The doe belongs to herself, but her affection for Bowers is unmistakable. She’s curious and kind to everyone else, too. Residents have found the deer on their back porches, laying around outside near the kids and, to the distress of some, munching in garden beds.
“As I say, ‘You know, she’s a wild animal. It could have been any deer,’” Bowers said with a chuckle.
Bowers, who previously worked as a mail carrier in Lindsey, California, said this neighborliness is what she loves most about the approximately 250-person town of Doty.
“It’s amazing,” she said. “The kids love her.”
For more information on what to do about sick or orphaned wildlife, head to https://wdfw.wa.gov/species-habitats/living/injured-wildlife.
