Meet the three-legged deer with a huge heart!
Rudie was given a second chance after an accident robbed him of a life in the wild
He’s missing a leg but Rudie the reindeer is so full of love and affection he’s become best mates with his adoptive family’s horse, cats, dogs and sheep.
“He just loves to love and he’s so kind,” smiles veterinary nurse Miranda Petts, 28, who rescued the brown-eyed buck when he was brought into her clinic.
Rudie was just two days old and in “very rough shape” after being hit by a harvesting machine. A local farmer in the NSW town of Albury brought him in wrapped in a blanket.
“We locked eyes, and he knew
I had his back. He was so calm. I fell in love immediately,” says Miranda.
With half his front leg missing, the fragile fawn could never survive in the wild and would have been euthanised – unless someone fostered him.
“I said to the vet, ‘Please don’t put him down, I can teach him to walk on three
‘We locked eyes, and he knew I had his back’
legs.’ By the end of the day I’d named him Rudie after Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer!”
Once he’d recovered from surgery, Miranda put Rudie into a poodle harness, and he soon started copying her border collies Kiera and Shadow.
“He now comes to the hairdressers with me and to the gym where I’m a personal trainer. I think he secretly wants to get on the treadmill for a bit of a trot,” she laughs.
Rudie also loves playing with Miranda’s twin sheep, cats and dogs, but his best friend is Joey the horse. “I’ve been taking him to the local retirement village and he’s become a real hit,” she says. “I can’t imagine life without my little Rudie.”