Wycombe Wanderers Deer Rescue

I grew up in Battersea, Sue grew up in Chelsea, so it was obvious that Chelsea had to be our football team through thick and thin, high and low. But now there is an extra football club pennant on our bedroom wall, that of Wycombe Wanderers.

Why?  Well, it is because Wycombe Wanderers have helped rescue two injured muntjac deer.       The first, a male, was attacked by two dogs on the hill overlooking their stadium in High Wycombe. The deer, was taken into the football club, its head covered with a Wycombe Wanderers practice shirt and was put into the players shower room until we could get there to pick him up.           

Sue and I went to collect him, the first time, I think, that Sue had ever been in a men’s locker room.           

As we went in he was on his feet but ominously, only on three legs. It turned out that one of the dogs had bitten through his main thigh bone, the femur.           

This meant that after he was stabilised at Tiggys; John, our vet, had to operate to put a stainless steel pin into the broken bone.           

Rooney, as the deer has become known, is doing well and should make a complete recovery.  The Wycombe Wanderers practice shirt that he brought with him has gone to Denise, a long time Tiggys volunteer and Wanderers supporter.           

The second deer was not so easy. But what is appalling is that she was caught by the same two dogs on the hills overlooking the stadium.           

It had been snowing when we arrived, but Wycombe Wanderers' staff, as ever helpful, unlocked their perimeter gates so that I could off-road across the fields to where the deer was being held.           

I often pride myself on my off-road prowess but this time in the mud and snow and Chiltern hill meant that I could only manage to get into the field next to where the deer was. Slipping and sliding I eventually managed to get as near as I could, then with Sue, Liz and student Sarah we carried and lifted the deer along one field, over a fence, through a thick hedge and finally into a deer box for its journey back to Tiggys.           

Thankfully the muntjac doe had only suffered slight wounds to the head and has now been released back in the Chilterns.           

Three cheers for the staff and players at Wycombe Wanderers for their support of us and these two deer.