Imagine you were driving down a road and all of a sudden, you see an unusual-looking animal — like a deer, but white.
You’d be confused, right?
Well this truck driver in California definitely was.
Earlier this month, he stopped short when he saw a white animal lying in the middle of the road.
He realized she was a fawn as he got closer and closer, except her fur was white.
“The finder said he thought she was a lamb at first because of her snowy white coat,” Shasta Stratton-Quirk, of the Kindred Spirits Fawn Rescue in Loomis, California, told The Dodo.
Most fawns lose their white spots as they grow older, but because this one is albino, she will not.
And while it’s not completely unheard of to see an albino deer among brown deer every now and then, it is strange and extremely rare to find a fawn without its mother, the rescue shared. They continued to say that this was the first white fawn to ever come into their care.
The baby deer, at only 3-weeks-old, was lucky to have not been hit by a car during its time being lost.
The fawn has been given the nickname Spirit, thanks to her caretakers.
With a trained team of wildlife rehabilitators checking on her and helping her every step of the way, Spirit is already showing signs of growing strong to live a healthy life. She seems to be determined.
The president of the shelter, Diane Nicholas, rescues orphaned fawns every year when they are not old enough to survive on their own (they really need their mothers at such a young age).
“She is currently doing very well,” Stratton-Quirk added. “She is eating and gaining weight!”
Over the next six or so months, it is their goal to make it so that Spirit will be able to be released back into the wild.
It will require some training, like teaching her how to socialize with fellow deers and also how to forage for her own food.
Spirit is expected to be just fine, since there are already established groups of deer in the area with albinism — she will fit right in!
We are happy Spirit was found safe and sound, thanks to the truck driver in California.
And we also hope that over the next six months she grows stronger and knowledgeable enough to go back into the wild with her fellow deer, where she truly belongs!
Also check out the clip below, which shows Spirit in full action.
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