I was working on a new story for this site. But I'm putting that aside for the moment to relate to you something that happened just today.

For those of you don't know, I live in the woods. I've been here for nearly 12 years. There's all sorts of wondrous sounds and sights can be heard and seen here. We've had deer frolicking in the backyard. Two bucks having been jousted over territory and does. Turkey's frequent our yard, in fact once we even saw two of them mating. As for sounds, we've heard woodpeckers hammering in the woods, coyotes howling off in the distance, and owls in the night.

The house is located a good distance from the road. In fact our lane is about a quarter of a mile long. This puts us pretty much smack dab in the middle of the woods. Our lawn pretty much makes up a small meadow amongst the trees. This is why the wildlife comes and visits with us so often. The only issue we really have being this far off the beaten path, is when we get a good snow.

This morning we had a slight shower. I took my coffee and opened the garage door and just stood there enjoying the rain. It was then I heard that one sound the digs deep into your soul and your very essence. It was a sound of a bleeting fawn somewhere off in the woods. It is a very heart-wrenching sound. Not unlike that of a small child crying lost at the mall. But the small child can count on the kindness of strangers to help them find their mother. But unlike the child, there is no one to come and help the fawn. Its only hope is to cry out to its mother in hopes of her return. At the same time it is alerting predators to where it is. I don't know what happened to its mother. It could have been hit by a car, run down by a pack of dogs, or worse yet, taken by a poacher. I'm a hunter myself, but I would never take a doe that had a fawn.

As some of you know I had posted a picture of two fawns resting in my backyard. They had been orphaned for some time now and had become quite used to being on their own. Frequently they would join other does with fawns in my backyard. However, the does would generally run them off because they didn't want to be bothered with tending for more fawns.

About two hours after hearing the fawn's cry, the twins were again in my backyard. This time they were grazing towards the back, nearer the woods. I could then hear the bleeting of the newly orphaned fawn. Looking out from my porch I could see the twins, but could not see where the sound was coming from. Then just behind one tree, between me and the forest, I saw the form of the third fawn. It was the one doing the crying. I could tell by seeing his abdomen contract during each bleet. The twins were paying it no mind. They just continued grazing.

Of course there's nothing I could do, or legally can do to help this orphaned animal. Nature must take its course. It's a fact of life we all live with here in the woods.