There’s roe place like home! A new lodger in family house
AN ABANDONED baby deer is being nursed back to health in a family’s home – but has been banned from watching the telly.
Fern, a young roe deer, was found alone at a roadside when she was just a week old.
Her mother is feared to have been killed on the road, leaving baby Fern to fend for herself.
She was found by a couple who took her to Maxine Scott, who runs a nearby animal sanctuary.
But Maxine, 60, has allowed the deer to live in the front room of her bungalow, offering her all the comforts of home.
Fern now has her own box and is hand-fed warm lambs’ milk.
However, in a bid to stop her getting too comfortable indoors, Maxine has banned her from watching TV.
Maxine said: “Fern was found cold and wet at a roadside and I got a phone call from the couple who found her.
“We think her mother was probably killed on the road, but we will never know.
“She was going to die without intervention.
“I brought her home and she needed special care, so I am keeping her in the house to feed her up.
“I think she’s about six weeks old now and we’ve been hand-rearing her for about four to five weeks.
“She just stays in the living room in the house where I live with my family. She has a pet box – it’s like a large pet carrier.
“We don’t encourage her watching TV and are trying to get her outside as much as possible.”
Over the years, Maxine has hand-reared monkeys, baby wallabies, lambs, hedgehogs and even a Highland calf at her Auchingarrich Wildlife Centre, near Comrie, Perthshire.
She said Fern is starting to explore the garden, but is still quite timid.
She added: “I have tried to put her outside several times into an enclosure but she is too timid and she freaks out.
“She’s scared of other people. It’s a natural instinct.
“We’ll let her go out in her own time.”