CARY, N.C. — A fawn that had been trapped inside a storm drain for several days was hoisted back into daylight this week by a rescue team that included the local fire department, animal control and public works crews — a joint effort the town summed up afterward with a line that promptly made the rounds online.
"Not all heroes wear capes; some wear waders! Thank you to everyone who helped save this sweet fawn."
Town of Cary
Responders from the Cary Fire Department, Cary and Wake County animal control, and the town's public works department coordinated the extraction, which required setting up a tripod and winch over the drain opening before a responder descended into the pipe to fit the animal with a harness. The fawn was then hoisted back to street level, a process that, judging by photos the town circulated afterward, involved considerably more hardware than the average house-cat-in-a-tree call.
Deer are frequent, if usually less deeply lodged, visitors to storm drains and culverts around Wake County, where suburban development has pushed neighborhoods into what used to be open deer range. Fawns in particular tend to wander into drainage systems while trailing a mother who can clear grates that trap her smaller, clumsier offspring — a mismatch that keeps local wildlife rescuers busy every fall.
After the rescue, animal control transported the fawn to Holly's Nest Wildlife Rescue, a regional rehabilitation center, for a veterinary check and recovery before an eventual release back into the wild. The town did not say exactly how long the animal had been stuck before it was spotted, only that the ordeal had lasted "several days" — long enough, presumably, for the fawn to have given up on getting itself out.
The episode is the latest in a small but steady genre of North Carolina animal-rescue stories this year, one that keeps local fire departments busy with calls that have nothing to do with fire.
