Petunia was given to me in May 2009 to raise after she was separated from her mother. She's now 2 years old and has her own baby born around May 27th, 2011. Petunia is semi-wild, meaning that she still visits me, allows me to touch her, eats corn from my hand, and, if given the opportunity, will "clean" my arms and hands. She treats me as her mother and at certain times of the year will visit my cabin daily. Other times, usually fall and winter, I might not see her for a week or two at a time.

I don't know yet if the baby is a buck or doe though I'm hoping it is a doe as that would mean Petunia would have a close companion all year. As it is now she hangs with the local deer but I don't think she is a part of their group, probably do to her relationship to me. If the baby is a buck he'll tend to keep more to himself once he has grown up as the bucks keep a bit of distance from the does. Time will tell. In any case the fawn seems healthy and wasn't too afraid of me probably do to Petunia's reaction to me which was not one indicating danger.

My guess is that I'll be seeing them almost daily now that the fawn is past the first week. Petunia visits everyday and the fawn will visit with her. It was amazing to hear the adorable sounds of a nursing baby deer which I'd heard with Petunia when I was bottle feeding her. I forgot just how sweet that sound is. Yes, it is the simple sound of a baby fawn nursing that makes my whole day.

P.S. Where the hell has the month of June gone? This is the third year in a row that we've had a strange spring to be followed by a June that is much more like August. 94-96 degrees??? The forcast for the next 6 days? Above 90 every day. Ugh. While I realize one cannot just look at a day or a month and say, "Ha! Climate change is real and it is upon us!", we've had one record hot year after another. Record numbers of wild fires, record drought, record tornadoes, record hurricanes. Yeah, welcome to human caused climate change.