Orphaned fawn rescue in Missouri rarely leads to a bond as lasting as the one between Lorrie Brown and her pet deer, Buttons. Taken in after her mother was killed, the doe lived with Brown’s family in southwest Missouri for more than thirteen and a half years, growing up beside two children, a golden retriever and a cat. Brown, now 57, describes her as a genuine member of the household, and Buttons repeatedly brought her fawns to the people who had raised her. Brown even wrote a children’s book about the close friendship between Buttons and the family’s dog, GBro.
A roadside death, a phone call and a Missouri woman who offered an orphaned fawn a new home
Fifteen years ago, Brown received a call about a mother deer that had been hit by a vehicle near the caller’s home. Her baby was left standing in the caller’s yard. Because the family lived close to the roadside, they were searching for somewhere the fawn could grow up safely, far from traffic.Brown told People she figured her home, which sits on a sizeable stretch of land, would be the ideal place to relocate the animal. Her family named the fawn Buttons.
How a social, trusting doe formed a legendary trio with GBro the dog and Rabbit the cat
Buttons eventually formed a “legendary trio” with GBro and the family’s cat, Rabbit, who lived to the age of twenty-two. Brown said she was surprised by how much the doe trusted the dog.Deer, she explained, are such social animals that they “literally have the fear of missing out”. Buttons proved the point whenever Brown’s daughter had swimming lessons. The doe would appear in the backyard the moment she heard them, expecting the children to pet and fuss over her.
Image: Lorrie Brown
How trail walks with a deer, cats and dogs on a property won over a devoted online audience
Six years ago, Brown began documenting life with Buttons. In 2020, she was sharing posts on Facebook, and followers kept telling her the clips brought them joy. Her son, who was twenty-one at the time, encouraged her to try TikTok. She admits she had no idea what it was, but reasoned that if he was happy for her to post, she could not be that uncool.Around then, Brown and her husband were building a hiking trail system on their land, which now stretches to almost fourteen miles. Buttons accompanied her on the routes, and cats and dogs often tagged along too. Brown said she receives comments every day from people who describe the walks as a break from politics, stress and a troubled world. She now shares her animals under the username @brownhikingtrails.
Two deaths within two months: the heartbreak of losing Buttons and Biscuit during the rut
About four years ago, the family found another baby deer on their trails, covered in maggots. They were unsure she would survive, but they rescued her and named her Biscuit. She lived for nineteen months before a car struck her.Buttons was also struck and killed within two months of Biscuit. Roads are scarce near the family’s home, but both deaths happened during the rut, the mating season when bucks chase does. “Our hearts were so broken,” Brown recalled, adding that followers felt the loss just as deeply because they had grown so attached to the deer and the family’s dogs.
How an orphaned fawn named Benny and his duck friend Pip helped heal a heartbroken family
A year after the double loss, a follower who had found Brown’s page called about a fawn whose mother had been killed by coyotes. Benny arrived last summer and, in Brown’s words, “healed everybody’s hearts”. He lived in her garden, sleeping near her ducks and spending his days beside them, and became best friends with one called Pip.Benny now roams freely on the family’s land, yet he is there every morning and evening and still hikes with them daily. He is old enough for his first rut and to find “little girlfriends”, as Brown puts it. Because he is the first buck she has raised, she cannot be certain the routine will last. She compares her worry to the feeling of watching her own children leave for college, and says she feels at peace whenever she sees him lying in the yard. Giving young animals freedom while hoping they stay safe, she said, is the hardest part. She does not expect to meet his fawns, since bucks typically have little to do with their young after birth. Benny’s friendship with the ducks is the subject of another of her books, Benny and the Ducks.
Buttons had eleven pregnancies, and now seventeen or eighteen deer visit the yard each morning
Buttons gave birth eleven times while she lived with the family. Each time, Brown walked up to her as soon as the fawn arrived, finding the doe licking her newborn clean and willing to let the family hold it. Buttons would also leave her fawns with GBro while she went about her day.That line of descendants now fills the property. Brown estimates that seventeen or eighteen deer gather in the yard each morning, and she believes nearly every one is related to Buttons, because her young went on to have young of their own. Benny is the first deer there with no family link to her, so the two bloodlines will eventually mix.Brown feeds the deer to tempt them back, and says she does it because they are all connected to Buttons and she sees it as looking after her legacy. In her experience, deer have no family of their own until they make one. Benny had the ducks and the household, and Buttons had the family, the dog and the cat, until each began building a family and bringing it to Brown’s door.Brown’s family, including her new grandson, shares her love for the animals. Most mornings she carries the boy outside, where he pets Benny and watches the ducks and deer. Followers tell her they love seeing a grandchild grow up in the same animal-filled surroundings her own children did, Brown told the source, and she says his face lights up whenever he sees Benny.