The baby deer sports a bright pink cast after being rescued in Asheville, North Carolina. Edith Allen Sanctuary / SWNS
A charming baby deer who was found alone limping through downtown Asheville, N.C., with a broken leg has been given a new lease on life after caregivers gave it a bright pink cast.
Little Alex was rescued and taken to the Edith Allen Wildlife Sanctuary after she was separated from her mother and hit by a car that broke her right back leg below the hip bone, SWNS reports.
While at the sanctuary, the 2-month-old fawn was given a cast and has been resting comfortably.
“It was heartbreaking to see,” Gwen Landt, co-founder of the sanctuary, said in comments obtained by SWNS. “Alex kept trying to run. She had a broken leg but she wanted to stand up. Wild animals are amazing when it comes to pain — they keep persevering through it all.”
Three weeks after arriving at the sanctuary, Alex’s condition has improved a bit, thanks to a “special box” that was built for her so she can exercise. She is now in a purple cast.
“She can’t run yet but I do believe in time we will be able to release her,” Landt added.
Landt said that she has spent much of her life taking care of fawns who have lost their mothers and are left to fend for themselves.
“These animals may look adorable but their background stories are really not sweet,” Landt said.
Landt added that she is trying to give tips to people on when it’s best to help these animals and when they should be left alone.
“When the mama is taking care of her baby, she leaves it in the ground and it curls up like a little croissant so the mother can go off and find food,” Landt said. “She leaves the baby because it doesn’t have any scent for a predator to detect.
People often come across the baby deer and they think, ‘Oh, it doesn’t have a parent, I’ll rescue it’. But they should wait to see if the mother comes back.”