Hindel Kidz 15: Clossner's Chloe
Hindel Kidz 15
Clossner’s Chloe
A few months after getting Lizzie Jack decided, “I would like to get another deer so Lizzie would have a playmate of her own.”
He asked the guy he had gotten Lizzie from to contact him if he had anymore girl deer. The guy never got back with him.
Sven had started to get into taxidermy a little more and had taken a duck down to a guy in East Fultonham. They became buddies and Dave said he would teach Sven and give him some pointers so he could mount his own ducks and other small animals. Dave gave him a number of different ducks to work on and a mink. All for free. He never charged Sven for any of the lessons either
Dave also raised whitetail deer. Jack went down with Sven and Grace one time. They were talking and Jack asked, “How much would you charge for a baby fawn?”
If the price was right then he might be interested in purchasing one in the spring.
“Just keep in touch with us and we’ll let you know when it gets closer to spring. We have a harder time trying to sell the does. Most people want bucks because of the antlers,” Dave said.
Jack didn’t mention anything about the baby fawn the rest of the winter. Even though Grace didn’t talk about it very much it was always in the back of her mind.
At the end of May, Sven e-mailed Dave to see if he had any duck eggs for sale and also asked how much he would charge for a little fawn.
“For you, I’ll give you one for free,” Dave replied.
They had beaten Ryan…he had to pay for Lizzie.
“None of our deer have had babies yet, but we’ll be sure to let you know when they do,” Dave’s wife said.
Grace checked the e-mail every day hoping the babies had been born.
Around 8:00am on June 1st the phone rang. It was Dave’s wife.
“We have a bunch of little baby fawns and there has to be a girl in there somewhere.”
Sven said he would be down at 11:00am. Sven and Grace went up to Jack’s first and told him to clean out the birthing pen and get it ready.
The Clossner’s don’t socialize with their deer like Jack does so they are all basically skittish and wild. They had to go in the pen to search for a baby fawn. They searched one side and didn’t spot the first fawn. Sven was the one who actually found her. He picked her up and she started to squall, squeal and kick. She was going crazy. Dave told Sven, “Hold onto her, but we will keep looking to see if we can find a smaller one.” They did, but it turned out to be a boy.
Dave’s wife wrote out all the information Jack needed incase anyone questioned where they had gotten the deer from. Grace got to hold her all the way home. She only wiggled once or twice and then she settled right down and lay in her lap just as good as gold.
Since Jack had named Lizzie after Elissa, Sven and Grace felt they should get to name this one. Even before they heard about the fawns, Sven and Grace had started to come up with names. Since they got her from Clossner’s, they decided to call her Chloe.
Grace was very anxious to see how Lizzie would react to another deer. Lizzie was only two days old when Jack got her and he said Chloe had to be two to three weeks old. Grace wondered if Chloe would think Lizzie was her mother. Or if Lizzie would think Chloe was her baby. Grace put Chloe down and she took off running and repeatedly crashed into the fence.
Carolyn was the first one to go and investigate. The fawn didn’t faze her any. Both Nibby and Ruby’s hair stood up on their backs. At first, Lizzie wasn’t sure what to think. When she finally got up enough nerve, she went over to smell Chloe and jumped back when Chloe would move. They circled each other for a minute or two. Then Lizzie put her head down and started to shove Chloe around. Lizzie had seen how the goats behaved and she didn’t know any different. She put her nose between Chloe’s back legs and would bump her up. Then she would push her around a little more and lick her. She also pawed at her a few times. Grace told Lizzie, “You have to play nice.”
Whenever Lizzie would walk away or come over to them, Chloe was right behind her. She followed Lizzie everywhere she went. Grace didn’t know if Lizzie was too thrilled with that or not.
“Leave Chloe alone for a while so she can get used to her new environment,” Jack said
Grace hoped she would become as tame as Lizzie. She also hoped she and Lizzie would bond and become friends and not be jealous of each other. It seemed Chloe knew what Lizzie was, but Lizzie had no idea what Chloe was.
The second day, Grace slowly walked out to Chloe and sat down and offered her, her hand. After a lot of coaxing, Chloe did smell it and let Grace get in a couple of small pets. Of course Lizzie was right there trying to lick Grace any chance she could. She even tried to climb up on her just so she could lick Grace’s face.
When Chloe went in the building, Sven tried to keep her in one place so he could pet her some more. Grace started to pet her while he was holding her still and Chloe started to suck on her fingers, just like Lizzie used to. Grace went in and asked Jack when Chloe’s next feeding was. He said he would go ahead and fix her a bottle even though it had only been three hours since she ate.
Sven caught her and put her over in the birthing pen for the night. She did drink a little when Grace tried to feed her. She was also able to pet Chloe a lot more when she was in the birthing pen.
The next time Grace got to feed Chloe, she knew what the bottle was and would basically come over to her. Chloe would drink all the milk and then bleep when the bottle was empty because she wanted more. Jack started to fix her two bottles every time he fed her. Funny as it may sound, Chloe would only drink milk if it was regular cow’s milk from the store. She wouldn’t touch the replacement milk.
“I want the good stuff, not that awful junk,” she thought.
If Grace went out and tried to see if she could pet Chloe when she didn’t have the bottle, Chloe would run right to Lizzie and then Lizzie would run over to Grace. Now Chloe will most likely only take the bottle from Jack and also eat bread and apples from him. She will also let him pet her. She will let Grace get in a couple small pets before running away if she is lucky. Grace was also able to get pretty close to her before she runs off. But when it comes to the bottle and feeding her, she is acting like a spoiled little baby. It took almost four months before Chloe would let Grace actually pet her.
