Late last night, I was out on my evening walk with my mother. The hour, I'm sorry to say, was very late, indeed. :) That's why I was more than a little concerned when it seemed "something" was crawling beside me on the roadway. You know how the human eye can detect motion even when it can't sense color? Well, this was a perfect example...a blurring of the grey asphalt beside me, barely made discernible by the faint moonbeams. Had the little, grey spot seemed larger, my first instinct would have been to forget walking or jogging and take to sprinting. :) Somehow, however, it didn't seem to be larger than the size of a hare or something of that sort.

Resourceful woman that I am, I opened my cell phone for some source of light. :) There, illumined by the blue glow, was a tiny fawn, crawling very slowly towards me. Actually, I can't quite say it was "crawling"; it was down on its front knees and was pushing itself just barely with its hind legs. It stopped from time to time and just lay panting on the asphalt. Within another moment, it had closed the remaining few inches between itself and my feet and then, simply stopped and lay there in a pile of brown fur with a multitude of white spots.

By now, I was definitely wondering where the tiny fellow's mother had gone. I left Mother with the little one and ran to search the street in both directions, finding no doe--either alive or dead. I returned to my mom and the fawn. It was tremendously weak and couldn't even lift its head. I'd love to take a vote right now and see how many of you think I continued with my jog and left the helpless fellow lying there alone in the middle of the street. :) ...not on your life...

Mom gathered our new ward up in her arms, and we slowly walked back home. Soon, we were in our kitchen, and I was rummaging through the lowest shelves of our pantry. Finding that for which I was searching, I finally emerged with a can of "replacement milk" and a tiny bottle. Yes, that's right...we actually keep such "necessities" in our pantry. :) You never know when you may be entertaining "angels unaware" or at least, "antlers unaware", in this case. :)

It took us about an hour to get the little one to sip down a decent portion of the milk (with some nourishing Nutri-Cal added). When I finally turned off the kitchen lights and started toward bed, he was, at last, getting enough strength to pick up his head just a little. I left him in a little cushioned bed on the kitchen floor, and my last sight of him was a glimpse of the tiny fawn nestled in the corner with our two Malteses settled in close on each side.

Right now, my little "antler unaware" is on his way to the wildlife refuge and rehabilitation facility about a half hour from our home. I know he'll be given good care there, but I was grateful to spend one night in nourishing the fawn in our own home. For it having been such a dark night, he added quite a ray of unexpected sunshine.

I hope all of you have a wonderful day. I pray you are blessed of God in all to which you set your hands for His glory. Bye for now. :)