We often see Mule deer in the neighborhood and lately they have been coming over the wall to bed down in the shade of our back yard as the Tucson summer heat machine is cranking up. Found this guy out back this morning. He appears to have broken his left foreleg, if you look close you can see it is swollen about 4 times the size of the other three.



He hobbled around the yard in obvious distress crying out in pain repeatedly. I felt bad for him so called the local Fish and Game guys. They said that as long as he had the use of 3 out of 4 they would just let nature take her course. Told them I wasn't sure how he ended up in my yard as it is walled in and the guy just laughed. They had had several reports about him already and he assured me he could make pretty good use of the other three.

Our Greyhound, Princess Millie, while fascinated, wanted nothing to do with this guy. She would not even set foot in the back yard. My bride decided to refill the birdbath for him while he was bedded down across the yard about 15 yards away. As soon as she stepped into the back yard Millie put herself between the buck and my bride. The buck hobbled to his feet and apparently seeing the buck as a potential threat our sweet little Millie let out a bark and started after him. Never saw a deer run so fast on three legs and he cleared the back wall by 2 feet.

Since I am stuck home recovering from my latest knee replacement I have to admit to enjoying the show and envying that buck's ability to move like that.

thats pretty cool capt steve ,i hope you gave your hero a big reward for putting the run on that huge, obviously dangerous monster.

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the rules? there are no rules

i just told my wife about this thread and she said the deer is probably a vagrant that has worked up this act to gain sympathy and free apples,carrots etc

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the rules? there are no rules

I was coming home from a 4/12 last fall, and there were some muleys crossing the road just at the top of the hill coming into town, and standing right in the middle of the road was smallish doe with 3 legs, she was missing her front left leg past the knee joint. She ambled across the road and hopped the fence with the rest, but I can't imagine she survived the winter with the amount of snow we had. She'd have needed all her legs to navigate through the deep snow and to paw some ground clear to feed on. They are pretty resilient creatures for looking so dainty however...

Hope you recover well...

Its amazing how strong and able to overcome injury deer (and all of the other animals, insects, etc.) are. Especially when you compare similar injuries to ourselves. It will continue to amaze me until the day i die. Neat story, hope you get back on your feet in soon!

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Ill see it when I believe it!

Nice story, hopefully it has a happy ending with the deer recovering. When I was a kid we had a deer in our back yard that was missing a leg. It was not as mobile as the one in your yard. Local game warden came and took care of it.

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Tim, USAF Ret.

Yeah, he straps on that 'swollen leg' right before he jumps into a yard.

Why did you let the dog out with the deer in the yard? I wouldn't have.

Years ago while hunting in Idaho my buddy killed a nice fat cow elk with a 30 caliber bullet in the right shoulder. It had been there quite some time as was all grown over with cartilage.Same trip my other friend killed a nice young cow with no left hind hoof. Must have been pulled off when crossing blow down timber we figured.Wild animals stand a lot of injuries.

It was not our intention. The pooch showed less than no interest before, would not even get close to going out the patio door but as soon as my bride went out Millie ran out and put herself between the deer and my wife. I think our princess pooch has a little actual dog in her and was feeling the need to protect my bride. Surprised us both, almost as much as the deer.

Reading the Sunday paper over a cup of coffee when my bride spotted our old buddy staring into our backyard. He has put on some serious weight and his rack has filled in nicely as well. The apparently broken front left foreleg has healed somewhat, still swollen and he walks with a limp but appears to get around pretty well.

well i guess you wont be able to ride him anymore...cant think what else to do with him... invite him for dinner maybe.
maybe you could train him to do yard maintenance

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the rules? there are no rules

When you invite a deer for dinner it has more than one meaning don't you know.;-)

I'd say that's six bits instead of a buck, but maybe he'll make it all the way back!

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Ukraine -- now more than ever

I wish I could have got a pic of the buck in my back yard about 5 years ago. It was during deer gun hunting season. I had left my gate open in the back yard. My yard is fenced in with a 6 foot high chain link fence because the previous owners had a large Doberman. Anyhow, this buck was with 2 does and they were all in my back yard. I watched them from the kitchen window. He was on alert the whole time. He was a mature 8 point. He was hit on the road below my house about 2 days later. What a shame too.

One request, can you folks please specify which way you are counting points?

I'm used to what I believe is western count. A 4 point is 4 on each antler. (for a total of 8 on the buck) We typically see 2-5 point bucks in our front yard counted this way.

A more correct description os 4 x 4 or 2 x 3 or 5 x 5 listing each antler separately.

And brow tines don't count as points.

If I am reading right either you guys have much bigger boys than we do or you are cheating ;-) and calling all the points on both antlers as the score.

Can someone clarify for me what you are calling points?