Shocked mom turns to find 4-year-old son brought stray deer to door of Virginia home
Children are notorious for bringing home stray animals, but a Virginia boy is getting credit for somehow managing to get a deer to accompany him to the front door.
A stunned Stephanie Brown managed to get a photo of the strange scene, without alarming the baby deer or her son. The image has received 10,000 reactions and 18,000 shares since being posted Tuesday.
“Dominic really went outside and brought a deer back,” Brown posted with the photo.
The image shows her grinning son on the porch in a coat and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer pajamas, with the young deer beside him.
It happened this week as the Ragged Point Beach family was nearing the end of a 4-day vacation at Virginia’s Massanutten Resort, according to Brown.
The family was packing to return home when Brown said she heard her son wiping his boots on a door mat, WRIC reported.
“So I turn my head and there it is. It’s like a little baby deer, and him. Like, it wasn’t anything strange for him. It was really weird,” she told the station. “I couldn’t even tell you, I was in shock. I was like, ‘No way. My mind is playing games with me’.”
Brown said she froze, trying to figure out what to do as the deer stood ready to come inside, station WWBT reported. That’s when she grabbed her phone and took two photos, including one showing the boy and deer interacting.
“After I got the picture I asked Dominic to walk his new friend back to the woods so his mommy could find him,” she told WWBT.
Brown told McClatchy News she has been take off guard by the “crazy” attention to the incident on social media.
“I never in my wildest dreams thought that picture would blow up the way it did,” she said.
“I found it funny and shared it. ... Anyone that knows Dominic knows he is a big personality and that he is the sweetest kid. I think this situation shows his kind spirit.”
Commenters on her Facebook post have noted how the boy and deer didn’t seem the least afraid of each other, along with a few jokes about how it was the deer who escorted the boy out of the woods.
Several people also noted Brown was lucky the boy didn’t bring home a raccoon or a fox, which are not so docile.
This story was originally published January 28, 2021 at 8:24 AM with the headline "Shocked mom turns to find 4-year-old son brought stray deer to door of Virginia home."