After saving a baby deer from a stream Sunday, local law enforcement named it Bambi and reunited it with its mother.
At about 2:30 p.m., a passerby saw the deer had fallen in a stream near Boulware Springs in Gainesville, said Gainesville Police Lt. Tscharna Senn.
The deer was trying to get out, and officers didn’t know how long it was stuck, she said. Officers think it may have fallen in while trying to drink water.
When officers arrived, the fawn was treading water, following the two officers and the passerby as they moved around the perimeter of the stream, Senn said.
Senn then called a deputy from the Alachua County Sheriff’s Rural Services Division to help get it out.
It took the deputy about five minutes to get the deer out of the water using a catch stick, she said. Once they got the deer near the edge, the deputy picked it up.
After they put the fawn on land, it looked like a newborn deer, wobbling to stay upright on its legs, she said. After it recovered, the four led it to the top of the hill, hoping its mother would be there.
Waiting for her baby, the mother jumped when she saw the deer, Senn said, reminiscent of the “Bambi” movie.
“It’s nice when you can do something and it ends well,” she said.
