An orphaned baby deer is being nursed back to health in a family’s home – but not allowed to watch TV.
Fern, a young roe deer, was found abandoned at the roadside when she was just a week old.
Her mother is feared to have died and she was taken to Maxine Scott who runs a local animal sanctuary.
Maxine, 60, is letting her live in the front room of her bungalow where she has her own box and is hand-fed warm lambs milk.
But in a bid to stop her getting too comfortable indoors she has banned her from watching the telly.
Maxine said: “Fern was found cold and wet at a roadside and I got a phone call from the couple who found her.
“We think her mother was probably killed on the road, but we will never know. She was going to die without intervention.
“I brought her home and she needed special care so I am keeping her in the house to feed her up.
“I think she’s about six weeks old now and we’ve been hand-rearing her for about four to five weeks.
“She just stays in the living room in the farm house where I live with my family.
“She has a pet box — it’s like a large pet carrier.”
Over the years Maxine has hand-reared monkeys, baby wallabies, lambs, hedgehogs and even a Highland calf at her Auchingarrich Wildlife Centre near Comrie, Perthshire,
She said Fern is starting to explore the garden, but is still quite timid and scared of people she doesn’t know.
She added: “I have tried to put her outside several times into an enclosure but she is too timid and she freaks out.
“She will interact with me and she likes getting scratched. But she’s scared of other people. It’s a natural instinct.
“We don’t encourage her watching TV and are trying to get her outside as much as possible.
“We’ll let her go out in her own time.”
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