Funny story, Hope it isn't true... Kinda long

I filled the cattle feeder then h id down at the end with my rope. The
cattle, having seen the roping thing before, stayed well back. They
were not having any of it. After about 20 minutes, my deer showed up -- 3 of them. I picked out a likely looking one, stepped out from the end of the
feeder, and threw my rope. The deer just stood there and stared at me. I wrapped the rope around my waist and twisted the end so I would have
a good hold. The deer still just stood and stared at me, but you could
tell it was mildly concerned about the whole rope situation. I took a step towards it... it took a step awa y. I put a little
tension on the rope and received an education. The first thing that I learned is that, while a deer may just stand
there looking at you funny while you rope it, they are spurred to action
when you start pulling on that rope. That deer EXPLODED. The second thing I learned is that pound for pound, a deer is a LOT
stronger than a cow or a colt. A cow or a colt in that weight range I could
fight down with a rope with some dignity. A deer, no chance. That thing ran and bucked and twisted and pulled. There was no
controlling it and certainly no getting close to it. As it jerked me off my feet
and started dragging me across the ground, i t occurred to me that having
a deer on a rope was not nearly as good an idea as I originally imagined. The only upside is that they do not have as much stamina as many
animals. A brief 10 minutes later, it was tired and not nearly as quick to jerk
me off my feet and drag me when I managed to get up. It took me a few
minutes to realize this, since I was mostly blinded by the blood flowing out of
the big gash in my head. At that point, I had lost my taste for corn-fed venison. I just wanted
to get that devil creature off the end of that rope. I figured if I just
let it go with the rope hanging around its neck, it would likely die slow and
painfully somewhere. At the time, there was no love at all between me
and that deer. At that moment, I hated the thing, and I would venture a guess that
the feeling was mutual. Despite the gash in my head and the several large knots where I had
cleverly arrested the deer's momentum by bracing my head against various large
rocks as it dragged me across the ground, I could still think clearly enough
to recognize that there was a small chance that I shared some tiny amount
of responsibility for the situation we were in, so I didn't want the deer
to have to suffer a slow death, so I managed to get it lined back up in between
my truck and the feeder - a little trap I had set b efore hand... kind of like
a squeeze chute. I got it to back in there and started moving up so I
could get my rope back. Did you know that deer bite? They do! I never in a million years would
have thought that a deer would bite somebody, so I was very surprised when
I reached up there to grab that rope and the deer grabbed hold of my wrist. Now, when a deer bites you, it is not like being bit by a horse where
they just bite you and then let go. A deer bites you and shakes its head --
almost like a pit bull. They bite HARD and it hurts. The proper thing to do when a deer bites yo u is probably to freeze
and draw back slowly. I tried screaming and shaking instead. My method was ineffective. It seems like the deer was biting and shaking for several
minutes, but it was likely only several seconds. I, being smarter than
a deer (though you may be questioning that claim by now) tricked it. While I kept it busy tearing the bejesus out of my right arm, I
reached up with my left hand and pulled that rope loose. That was when I got my final lesson in deer behavior for the day. Deer
will strike at you with their front feet. They rear right up on their back
feet and strike right about head and shoulder level, and their hooves are surprisingly sharp. I learned a long time ago that, when an animal -- like a horse -- ;
strikes at you with their hooves and you can't get away easily, the best thing
to do is try to make a loud noise and make an aggressive move towards the
animal. This will usually cause them to back down a bit so you can escape. This was not a horse. This was a deer, so obviously, such trickery
would not work. In the course of a millisecond, I devised a different strategy.
I screamed like a woman and tried to turn and run. The reason I had always been told NOT to try to turn and run from a
horse that paws at you is that there is a good chance that it will hit you in
the back of the head. Deer may not be so different from horses after all,
besides being twice as strong and 3 times as evil, because the second I turned
to run, it hit me right in the back of the head and knocked me down. Now, when a deer paws at you and knocks you down, it does not
immediately leave. I suspect it does not recognize that the danger has passed.
What they do instead is paw your back and jump up and down on you while you are
laying there crying like a little girl and covering your head. I finally managed to crawl under the truck and the deer went away.

Glad y'all enjoyed it and I appreciate your stories.

The only one I have anywhere close was when my parents adopted a retired racing greyhound. These dog are known for being able to run 40-45 mph, hitting top speed within 30 feet.

We were working in th meadow when the dog (new to farm) spotted a deer. The dog took off, the deer took off, the dog caught the deer but was totally confused and ended up running right beside the deer. Now in this part of the world, this is a capitol offense and a deer chasing dog doesn't have a long life expectancy. Well armed neighbor folks don't put up with that. Anyway, the dog ran right beside the deer matching the deers stride until the deer jumped the fence. Dog didn't. Dog hit fence going 30-40? MPH (top speed of scared deer). It was ugly and said dog never had any interest in deer thereafter. Dog was he11 on rabbits, though...

Aaron

The story about the fawns, must have been older or old enough to gained enough strength etc., I've never seen them like that when new born.

I've caught several over the years, never sure how old, but not long, last one still had blue eyes. Around here, they prefer tall grasses, and for me it's very easy to spot and predict when one is going to have a fawn, you'll notice the doe hanging around a certain area, keep checking and you will find that fawn if you monitor the area long enough, from afar, you don't want to spook the doe. Every year at least one doe has a fawn at the back side of one of the old barns, where the cows were milked years ago, there is a remnant of the building, lot of tall grass, I can see from my kitchen window.

If you capture one, at least when still weak and newborn, it will probably be terrified of you, the last one I caught was so frightened, I did even chance holding it long enough to take a photo, mom came back but just observed, let the little one go, she raised that one and brought it up by the house often for the remainder of the summer. I've had the darned things come right up on the porch, and they are really funny when a group shows up, all lined up feeding off the corn I put out for them, they will show up at the same time everyday, a nice gesture for the locals here when the winter has lots of snow and is very cold. I stumbled upon one 26 years ago on a stone wall, it tried to run but could hardly walk, I grabbed it and put it back into it's hiding spot, mom came back and was not pleased, but it was my cue to leave em both alone and be on my way. Tempting as I know many people who have raised them, the guy I bought my tractor from a had several in his back yard pen, must have had a permit to raise and keep them.

Talk about something that you may not think is a tasmanian devil, catch a woodchuck by hand. I used to get between them and their holes by carefully stalking them, they will run the same path through high grass, will stop when in front of you, have to pounce on them quickly, with heavy gloves on, I wore 2 pairs, he'll clamp onto your hand, if not for the gloves, would be a nasty bite. Dogs are smart and usually kill them with no injury. I can remember catching the same one numerous times, he was not happy. I can remember riding the quad along side one runnning to the hole, growling in protest the entire way.