As Darius Sasnauskas watched a mother deer walking with her two fawns in his yard near Yellowstone National Park, he noticed that one of the babies was limping. The fawn periodically stopped to rest, then rushed to catch up with her mother and twin. Because of nearby predators, it was important for the deer family to keep moving. After trying unsuccessfully to assist her baby, the mother made the difficult choice to abandon the injured fawn.

Sasnauskas watched the fawn from a distance until darkness fell. Knowing there was little chance of her surviving through the night, he brought her into his home. Because the outdoorsman lives in a remote area with no nearby rehabilitation facilities, he took it upon himself to nurse the fawn back to health. He made a leg brace for her and fed her every four hours.

When the fawn was strong enough to return to the wild, Sasnauskas set out to find her a family. However, none of the deer he spotted approached the fawn, and when he tried leaving her in the field, she followed him. Luckily, when Sasnauskas was away from his property, her mother appeared and was happy to have her baby back. Thanks to Sasnauskas’s dedication to rehabilitating the fawn, she’s now fully grown and enjoying her life back in the wild, where she belongs.