The call came just minutes after wife and son left for church.

Not that unusual of a call, just a little early in the year. Folks with a mule deer fawn in their back lot.

A dead fawn.

Doe had been in the corner by the russian olive tree when the crew arrived to mow down last year's accumulation of weeds and coarse grass, and bolted over the fence. Owners peeked in through the slats of the wood fence to see a deer fawn, obviously dead, sprawled out in the dirt.

And its twin laying nearby, "dying" according to them.

Okay. I haven't even shaved yet this morning, but I'll soon be on my way in to town.

Now, this home is on what some would have called the "wrong" side of the tracks thirty or forty years ago. So I was quite surprised when I got to their address and got a peek at their new digs. Beautiful lawn, huge single-floor home, and two empty lots in the back. Certainly more room than when they lived a block from us.

Besides them and the two dogs, I am also greeted with new news.

There's three fawns.

Well, that explains why the doe was dropping so early in the spring. Triplets get kinda hard to carry.

So, they lead me around their maze of a home, and through the second garage, and we peek through the slats and knotholes of the fence into their vacant lot. And there, in the dirt, is the dead fawn. And a meter away, unmoved, is the "dying" fawn.

Oookay. The way it's crossing its back legs looks a little unusual, but otherwise the little thing looks fine. The ears are pulled down and back, and it's not twitching a muscle.

At less than a day's age, that's what mule deer fawns are supposed to do when Mom's not around.

Nuthin'.

We shuffle over a few meters, and try to spot the third fawn the mowing crew reported. Bend low to look through a crack and realize the little thing is right here, at our feet, snugged up against the other side of the wood. If the gaps in the wood were wide enough, you could reach through and touch its nose.

Okay. What to do?

Well, like so many other cases with baby wildlife, the right thing to do is...

Nothing at all.

Yeah, summer has hit, so the dead fawn is gonna start to smell soon. But not enough to warrant reaching in there to take it out. Odds are, Mama's going to want to get the other two away from that spot when she comes back anyway. Lawn crew's gone, so we'll just leave them alone, and see if the doe comes back, and what happens when she does.

Other than opening the gate so the fawns can follow Mom out if she wants them to, we humans need to do the same thing as newborn fawns.

Nuthin'.

I did warn them, though, that sometimes the doe doesn't want to leave. Had one keep her fawns in someone's backyard for two weeks before she decided to take them out into the town.

They're okay with that. Plans for landscaping that lot can wait.

Cool.