You hear tales of firefighters rescuing kittens from trees.
In Astoria, they rescue baby deer from roofs.
A social media post from the Astoria Fire Department on Saturday documented the July 4 rescue.
It’s not clear how the fawn ended up on the roof. The Facebook post from the Astoria Fire Department was light on details but heavy on photos.
The photos show a baby deer perched on a roof, a firefighter climbing a ladder to scoop up the tiny trespasser and finally, a family reunion shot in which Mom shows up.
“Please be safe everyone but if you find yourself stuck on a roof we’ll come get you also!” the department wrote.
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife says that mother deer tend to stash their newborns in brush and go off to forage for food. They’ll generally go some distance away to avoid drawing attention to the babies, which (usually) stay put, relying on their spotted coats for camouflage and the fact that they have very little odor that predators can pick up on, the department says.
Sometimes well-intentioned humans will come across a baby deer, mistakenly conclude it’s been abandoned and try to “save” it, the department says, often with tragic outcomes. (Baby deer need their moms to teach them how to be deer and survive in the wild, Fish and Wildlife says.)
It’s not clear how this baby ended up on the roof. The mother declined to comment, but we suspect someone’s been grounded.
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