DEER RUDDY
Deer adopts Red Angus herd

BEACHBURG — A lost Fallow deer that showed up at Wilson Rae’s feedlot, north of Cobden, three years ago is still there.

The small deer arrived in winter and Rae figured it wouldn’t survive the next hunting season. But it did, using the beef animals as protection. Rae arrives occasionally with a bag of carrots for the deer he nicknamed Ruddy. But Ruddy won’t let Rae get close enough to touch him. For safety the deer sticks close to the herd of Red Angus cows, dodging behind the large animals to keep its distance from strangers.

Completely outsized by his new family, Ruddy is a match only for the young calves and sometimes playfully butts heads with them until they get too big for the deer, said Rae. The deer probably escaped from a farm, Rae said.