Rescuers pull deer from the drink

A deer in the swimming pool is not a good thing.

That's exactly what Melanie Petterson thought when her son Rory called her to say there was one in the pool at her home at the east end of the Sisters Airport.

"You have to be kidding!" she said.

"Nope, it's for real, mom," Rory confirmed.

Melanie then turned to the secretaries in the Sisters High School office where she was signing up her daughter Jacobie for athletics, and told them about it. No one thought it was serious and laughter filled the room. But when Melanie arrived home she found it was no laughing matter.

Elder Smith, a Latter Day Saints missionary living with the Pettersons, was afraid the fawn was going into shock.

He said, "I wish we could help it, but we don't want to cause any more problems."

"Good thinking," Melanie said, and called the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife (ODFW) in Bend.

Wildlife biologist Corey Heath and Dave Doran, retired ODFW volunteer administrator, responded to the scene. Heath was expecting it to be an adult in the pool, but instead he found a fawn resting on top of the pool cover.

"Nuts," he said, "I didn't bring my waders."

That problem was solved when Elder Smith ran next door to Mike Morgan's house and borrowed his waders.

Without preamble, Heath outfitted himself, slipped into the pool, and without fanfare or struggle, scooped the fawn out of the water and carried it to the side of the pool, much to the joy of the entire Petterson family, LDS guests - and presumably the fawn as well.

But all was not well with the fawn. There was a deep gash on the left hip of the fawn's rump and another smaller wound on the shoulder. As Heath and Doran continued their examination they discovered additional damage to the fawn's ears, head and neck.

"Looks like a dog got after it," Heath murmured, "and it may have jumped into the pool to escape further punishment."

After looking at the fawn's injuries, Heath decided it would be best for a veterinarian to stitch up the muscles in the rump and close up the other wound best as possible. Off he went to Broken Top Veterinarian Clinic, where Dr. Little Liedlblad and her crew made things right.

"When the vet gets through repairing the damages," Corey said, "we'll bring it back and release it near here for its mom and clan to care for it."

Ordinarily, that would have been that, but the fawn pulled a fast one no one expected. After Corey and Dave dropped the fawn back at the end of the airport runway, it was immediately reunited with its mom.

"We watched it nurse and then run off up the hill on the other side of Indian Ford Creek and thought all was well," Heath said.

However, the next thing anyone knew, the little guy was back in the pool. This time, Sven Petterson, husband and father of the Petterson clan, came to the rescue. Sven is an ex-rodeo circuit rider and had no problem roping the fawn and removing it from the pool. It was dried off (again), checked for any new injuries, and finding none, sent on its way with its mom and herd.

According to wildlife biologists, this entire incident may have been caused by two preventable actions.

Deer are encouraged to stick around town by residents putting out feed and/or mineral blocks for them. Wildlife experts ask Sisters Country residents, DO NOT FEED THE DEER.

Second, don't allow your dog to wander off your property and attack wildlife.

This time of year, wildlife biologists tell us fawns are beginning to wander away from their mothers as they are weaned and becoming more self-reliant. Just a casual glance around Sisters and the outlying suburbs will reveal there are several large mule deer clans living all around the Sisters Country, and throughout the city of Sisters itself.

Ideally, when the weather turns cold and the sun tells them it's time to migrate, the deer will leave town and head off to their wintering grounds.

That will only happen if people stop making pets of them, and thereby provide deer the opportunity to live their lives in the wild where domestic dogs and swimming pools don't threaten their welfare.