While some animals enjoy going for a swim, the water can be a dangerous place — especially when they get pulled too far out into the sea and get stranded.
Thankfully, there are people out there willing to step up and save these animals. Like one fisherman, who caught reeled in a very unexpected catch.
Mark Bowditch, a 56-year-old skipper of a fishing charter boat in Dorset, England, was out at sea recently when he caught an unusual sight in the water.
“Initially, I just thought it was a basking shark swimming slowly across the surface,” he told SWNS. “Then when I got a little bit closer and it turned, I saw it had two ears!”
No, it wasn’t a shark — it was a deer, stranded out at sea and struggling to stay afloat in 150-foot waters half a mile off the coast.
With the help of the people on board the boat, Mark launched a plan to reel in the deer and help it get back to shore.
“We got the mackerel lines in so it wouldn’t get caught, and then made a sort of lasso to catch it with,” he explained. “The current was going out, so it probably got caught in the tide and pulled out into the deep water.”
“When I realised it was a baby deer, I knew there was no way I could just leave it there,” he told the Dorset Echo.
By lassoing the deer, they were able to pull it inside the boat. The baby deer was exhausted, but luckily still in good shape.
The deer got a long well with its shipmates, including the children on board, who named the deer “Bambi.”
“Once it was onboard it lay down in the corner totally exhausted but uninjured,” Mark said. “We bound its legs using a soft rope so that it wouldn’t bolt and scare the three children who were onboard but it wasn’t really moving anyway, it was just resting.”
The boat arrived at the shore, and they got the deer back on dry land — and amazingly, the deer seemed truly appreciative of their help.
“The little deer came back down the bank and stood right beside me so I gave it a stroke and then it put its head on me so I gave it a hug and told it that it was safe now and it went back up the bank. It was such a lovely moment – it was as if the deer was thanking me.”
“I’m just glad that it is okay.”
It’s a very happy ending to the story, which could’ve easily ended in tragedy had they not found the deer just in time.
“If we hadn’t come across it, it would probably have just drowned,” Mark told SWNS.
Thank you to Mark Bowditch and everyone on the boat for saving this poor deer! You definitely saved its life.
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