Lucky doe – luckier couple

Now this is just too damn adorable for me to pass up a chance of blogging about it: a couple that owns and runs an animal rescue shelter are taking an inquisitive doe as a new part of the family, letting it eat and even sleep in their house.

One recent morning, the nearly 1-year-old doe was hungry. Baby entered through the back door of the Nolans' farmhouse in Jones, held open by George, climbed the three steps to the kitchen and headed for the breakfast table, where Kathleen waited with a pair of baby bottles of goat's milk.

Baby wolfed down one and part of the second before George, with Baby sniffing at his side, sliced up an apple. Soon, the apple, too, was gone, and Baby turned her attention to grapes offered by the Nolans' son Michael.

It was a typical morning at the Nolan household, where Baby is anything but your typical deer.

"We've had other deer but never one that came in the house," marveled George.

They believe the mother of the fawn (which has been named 'Baby') has been killed recently, and that if they had not been there to feed and help the poor animal, it likely would've died. Once they'd fed it for a week as they do with any other animal, they released her – but the fawn apparently took them in as guardians in her heart and now returns every day at roughly the same hour.

Usually, she shows up for breakfast and late in the afternoon for dinner. She even stayed one night, sleeping in the living room, when a snowstorm hit, and has appeared to watch television.

"The first time she went to watch it, she licked the TV and got a shock. Boy, she jumped back," Kathleen said. "Another time, I was watching a wildlife show and a wolf howled. She looked around to see where that was coming from."

Baby also has munched on the Nolans' cookies and, according to caregiver Pam Henderson, passed the time pulling tissues out of Kleenex boxes. As for the inevitable bathroom accidents, the Nolans said they're rare.

"She's spoiled rotten," Kathleen admitted. "You know, we don't get paid to do this. The apples are breaking us."

I hereby demand that anyone reading this ships a orchard's worth of apples to the Nolans! Can't have these wonderful kind-hearted people go broke, now, can we? Not when they have a Baby to feed ... Awww. I'm such a sap for this sort of stuff.