June 20, 2008
by Christine Yeres
At 3:45 p.m. Thursday, June 19, New Castle Police answered a “911” call to the front entrance of the Bell Middle School, where a fawn had jumped or fallen into a window well and was unable to get out.
The three by six foot well was five feet deep. Officer Heather Rudisill phoned an animal rehabilitation facility for advice as Officer Kevin Martyn climbed over the iron rails lining the rim of the well and joined the fawn which, in trying frantically to jump up and out of the well, had succeeded only in banging its head repeatedly. The good news was that none of its bones had broken in its initial fall.
Recalling a similar case in which wrapping a young deer with a blanket had helped to calm the animal, the officers commandeered a blanket from the nurse’s office. Still in the well, Martyn covered the creature completely to calm it, then bundled it up like a package and passed it out of the well. Since Rudisill had in the meantime learned that the wildlife handlers would only have transported the fawn to the nearest wooded area, the officers did exactly that themselves and released the animal to the woods behind the school. Exhausted from its exertions, the creature ambled off none too quickly, seeming a little lost.
Martyn noted that this was peak season for the fawn population, a little early this year due to the mildness of last winter.
Worried onlookers
Into the well
Wrapped up securely
A little calmer
Back to Nature
Rudicill and Martyn
Copyright 2008 NewCastleNOW.org