Oh Dear, Oh Deer

This is not the most flattering photo of these beautiful women, sorry friends, but I want to set the scene here............we are standing at the back of Abby's property........I'm snapping pics of the serenity that surrounds us........I take this picture and seconds later, as if out of nowhere, a new born baby deer appears standing right between Abby and Anna.......oh, maybe 8 feet back! I can't speak, I'm so shocked. Abby sees the expression on my face and turns to see what I'm gawking at. We can't believe it. A close encounter........ Our minds race . We worry about this scared little one. Where is the mother? We know something is wrong here.........The baby looks at us for help........he seems confused and lost........he jumps across to the other side of the creek. We feel helpless. We want to help. We decide to give him some space, hoping, longing for the mother to appear.
but she does not. We fear the mother has been hit by a car or is too afraid to show herself...we move away, back up out of respect...let nature take it's course...by now the little one has clumsily climbed the steep bank on the other side, and he is gone. We try to gather ourselves, our pulse is racing, it happened so fast. A truely unusual sight...it doesn't become clear to us until we see the next photo what may have been going on here...

We see an unusual growth and strange markings on the side of his face.............We surmize, the mother must have rejected the baby due to his abnormalities. Nature can be harsh.