A baby deer wearing a harness stands in a grassy outdoor area with a black-and-white dog nearby, suggesting spring or summer under natural daylight. 4:14
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Border Collie mothers a three-legged fawn

A farmer walking in the woods near his farm came across a fawn all alone. The baby deer was two days old, hurt, and missing part of one leg. more

The farmer rushed him straight to an animal hospital, where the staff saved his life. The fawn, Rudie, was out of danger, but he was still scared and a little sad. A deer with three legs can't go back to the wild, so he needed a safe home and someone to look after him while he healed.

A nurse at the hospital saw how frightened he was and adopted him into her family. That gave Rudie two moms, the nurse and Keira, a black-and-white Border Collie. Keira stayed close while he healed and comforted him like he was her own puppy, and slowly the nervous fawn began to believe things would be OK.

A baby deer wearing a harness stands in a grassy outdoor area with a black-and-white dog nearby, suggesting spring or summer under natural daylight. The headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
A farmer walking in the woods near his farm came across a fawn all alone.

Walking was the next problem. Baby deer are shaky on their feet to begin with, and Rudie had one leg fewer than most. His human mom found him a harness so she could hold him up while he practiced and keep him from falling.

It worked. His balance got better and better until he could run, and then run a bit too fast. "Rudie, slow down," he's told, and after that comes a banana break and a quick stretch.

Keira isn't the only dog in the family, and the others had lessons of their own. Mostly these involve pushing a giant bucket around the yard, a game whose rules no human has managed to explain.

These days Rudie keeps pace with anyone in his family. He's brave about almost everything except spiny echidnas, which still freak him out. He started out alone in the woods at two days old, and now he has a whole crew running beside him.