A rather wrenching day

When I leave Alpine for the oasis in hot weather I try to get on the road around 6 AM so I can get some work done before it gets too hot. This morning I overslept and didn't head south until around 6:30. No big deal. As always, I stop at the mailboxes to check my box at Hwy 118 and Terlingua Ranch Road. When I got out of my pickup I thought I heard something fall out of it. I looked down on the ground and even underneath the vehicle and couldn't see anything so went on my way.

On my road, I stopped along the way to prune bushes that were growing into the road, so at least an hour had passed. When I went into my cabin I went to check me messages and no phone. I was in full panic mode! I realized what had to have happened. So I went tearing back to the mailboxes, assuring myself that no way would it still be there. The last time I lost a phone like that, I got back in 10 minutes and it was gone forever. But I had to at least check before calling the phone company and going through that whole nightmare. When I got to the mailboxes (about 7 miles from the oasis), I looked and saw nothing, just as I had fully expected. As I went to get into my pickup and leave, I spotted my phone at the base of a mailbox, partly hidden by grasses. I could not believe the luck! Since I was already getting into my pickup, I don't know how I even saw it!

I was ecstatic! Boy will I keep better track of that phone! The minute I thought I heard something fall out of my pickup, I should have looked to locate my phone. The phone never crossed my mind. Duh!

So when I got back to the oasis and unpacked it was after 11 AM and hot. But what put a damper on my exceptionally high spirits, was seeing a doe in trouble and nothing I could do. At first I figured she was just in labor and all would be fine. I saw her lying under a tree and she didn't seem to be in distress.

When I got too close she moved to some nearby bushes. I monitored her often as I went about servicing the mostly empty feeders. She just stood in the bushes pretty motionless for several hours.

By mid-afternoon my thermometer said 112° I had a late lunch and when I got back to the oasis, I didn't see the doe. Felt relief. Went to look for odes in the tank and there was the doe, submerged in water nearly up to her neck. She stayed like that for over two hours.

Later, around 6 PM I heard weird noises coming from some bushes near the feeders but didn't see anything. Then the doe came out of the bushes and stood against a fence like she was biting the fence wire. She was breathing loud and fast. Drooling from the mouth (open and tongue hanging out), and a discharge from her rear.

I sensed that she wanted me to help her, but there was nothing I could do. Her leg was bloody.

She stayed that way until I left at 9 PM. Vultures were perching nearby.

On a brighter note, I saw baby Scaled Quail. I just adore baby chicks.

And I saw five California Spreadwings all together, but could only get four in the photo. 

Tomorrow early I'll finish watering and see what other good stuff is there before I head back to town.