Scottish Daily Mail

OH, YOU CAME BACK, DEER!

Family rear abandoned fawn in their kitchen then set him free. Now he pops in to say hello!

- By Andrew Levy

THE family took him in as a newborn after he was attacked by another deer and abandoned by his mother.

They nurtured him back to health in their kitchen and released him back into the herd on their country estate.

And Inchy the fallow deer has clearly not forgotten the kindness shown to him by the Hervey-Bathursts – because he makes sure to break away from the herd to come back and visit them.

Eleanor Hervey-Bathurst, who helped rear the fawn, said: ‘Even though he’s fully integrated with the herd, as soon as any of us come outside he bounds over to us and gives us loads of attention.

‘If we didn’t close the gate he’d follow us all the way back to the house.’

The five-year-old buck has 5,000 followers on his Instagram account @Inchygram where photos show him nuzzling family members, playing with their fox terrier Greta and generally sticking his nose in where other deer wouldn’t. But he almost didn’t see out his first day when he was born at the estate near Basingstok­e in Hampshire.

Miss Hervey-Bathurst, 24, said: ‘His mother gave birth right in the middle of a field. We have two herds – one of red deer and one of fallows – and a female red deer came right up and started attacking him. It was really brutal and when my dad rescued him he thought he was dead until he opened one of his eyes.’

Inchy was put in the kitchen where he lived in a playpen and was fed goat’s milk four times a day. Law student Miss HerveyBath­urst said: ‘It was amazing to have him in the house. He knew where his milk was kept and would wait patiently for it.’

After four months, Inchy was reintroduc­ed to the herd. At first he was ‘shaking, absolutely terrified’ but the other deer, including his mother, accepted him.

He was soon grazing with the herd, but always bounds over when he sees people with his favourite snack, apples. ‘He’s incredibly friendly,’ Miss Hervey-Bathurst added. ‘If an Amazon delivery driver turns up he’ll come and give them a kiss.’

 ??  ?? Rescue: Inchy was raised in the kitchen Family friend: Inchy as a fawn and, right, with Eleanor Hervey-Bathurst
Rescue: Inchy was raised in the kitchen Family friend: Inchy as a fawn and, right, with Eleanor Hervey-Bathurst

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