I was kayaking in Whitefish Dunes State Park, Door County, WI on Memorial Day, 2010. I had paddled along the Lake Michigan coast a couple miles and decided to stop and rest. It had turned sunny and I was lying down, taking a snooze. I heard what I thought was a cat meowing. When it happened several times and not far away, I opened my eyes and there was Bambi staring at me about 15 feet away. Startled, I said “Bambi!” He/she kept crying and walking around through the rocks, gradually getting closer and closer to me. He was very skinny and couldn’t have been more than a couple days old. He was obviously lost from his mother and didn’t know enough to be afraid of me. When he got close enough, I reached out my hand for him to smell. That startled him and he turned and ran back to where he started. He then squatted down like he was peeing. He peed for quite awhile! Then all of a sudden he dropped to the ground and made a snorting sound. I thought he had dropped dead. Then I heard it again, but this time it was from the woods. I looked up to see Bambi’s mother, jumping around and snorting at me. Her snort must have also been a message to Bambi to lay down and stay still. She apparently wasn’t going to come to Bambi’s rescue with me there, so I picked up and walked back to my boat. I had a camera with me, but the batteries had gone dead. I thought I’d try to get one more shot out of the camera, so I walked back and took 2 pictures. Bambi was still lying in the same place, so his mother was still too shy to rescue him even though I had walked out of sight to the boat. So, I gathered my stuff and took off with the boat so Momma could rescue Bambi.
Tim Detwiler
