Esquimalt neighbours banded together to help a deer stuck in the Colville Park baseball field.
It was unable to get out through the fence or jump to freedom, which attracted the attention of locals, including Kate Lawes. She works at Tree of Life Playschool, which is located across the field.
“About two weeks ago, I just saw it walking along the fence. And it was limping. So I figured it had jumped in, hurt itself, and was not able to get out,” Lawes told CHEK News.
Lawes and the children at the preschool would watch every morning to see if the buck was still stuck.
So she posted a message on the Esquimalt Community Connections group on Facebook Monday night asking for help.
“We were worried about it. Every morning, they were like, what are we going to do?” Lawes said.
A neighbour who works at CFB Esquimalt read the post Tuesday morning and phoned the base.
Within 30 minutes, help arrived in the form of Corp. Nathan Barrett with CFB Esquimalt military police.
“I got dispatched to a call of a trapped deer down here in the baseball diamond. So I showed up, and you can see the fence is pretty high,” Barrett said.
“So it doesn’t look like it was able to jump out.”
Residents say this is the first sighting of a deer on the field. Geese gather there on masse as soon as baseball season is over.
It took a few minutes, but Corp. Barrett and a colleague opened the closest gate to the field. Then, they dusted off their shepherding skills and steered the deer.
“So we had to kind of corral it in the direction we wanted it to go. But it eventually figured out that it was free, and off it went,” Barrett said.
Thanks to the close work of the community, the buck hightailed it out.
“It seemed to be looking, to be honest, every time I saw it. So that’s fantastic. Yay!” Lawes said.
Now, the field is back to normal, and the buck is back in nature.
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Mary Griffin
