Along the Lantana

This gorgeous lantana plant was blooming alongside the barn the other day.

A few feet away, as she does nearly every night, Tabor brought her babies by for dinner.

That night she had two babies with her.  Sometimes we see her with one baby, sometimes two, and sometimes... even three.  We believe Tabor has two fawns, and occasionally babysits an extra.  But it is possible she had triplets (fertilemuch?) and has been fooling us all along.

In any event she's proving to be an excellent mother this time around, just as in the past.

I'd like to take a little credit for that, but really I never could give her much help with deer mothering.  Take, for example, this old photo. 



I mean, is it really useful for her to learn to let me kiss her?  Probably not.

Despite my best efforts to corrupt her, she's obviously figured out the whole Deer Thing, though, as her babies are big, strong, and frisky.

It's good to know I can be an utter failure in Deer Maternal Behavior 101 and everything still turns out okay. 

In a related turn of events, Beep is now grunting and beeping deer sounds at her discretion.  So there appears to be some bleedover of deer education.  This skill may make kindergarten interesting, but whatever.  You win some, you lose some.