Maple Rescues Reindeer

[dogwoodmaple 380]

In a daring rescue Saturday night, Dogwood Maple rescued two dozen reindeer from certain death.  It all started when he was out for a drive to look at Christmas lights with his family.  After driving through the various notable neighborhoods, Maple headed out to a famous Christmas light installation about 30 miles outside of town.  On the way, a huge blizzard reared its ugly head, covering the roads with inches of snow.  As Maple traversed the difficult roads, he noticed something off to his right.

 

"I looked over and I saw a huge mass of something.  I couldn't tell at first, but I knew it was alive.  It turns out, it was a bunch of reindeer who had gotten their antlers stuck in a barbwire fence.  I think they tried to run and take shelter from the blizzard and wind, and they ended up just getting caught there," Maple explained.

Knowing that he couldn't just leave them there struggling on the fence, so he sprang into action.  He jumped out of the car, donned his big coat, gloves, and hat, and raced over to the group.  After carefully approaching the reindeer, he reached his hand out to gain their trust. 

 

"At the end of the day, they're wild animals.  I know I'm trying to help them, but they don't necessarily know that.  They just see a stranger coming up to them in what could be a threatening manner.  Especially when they're vulnerable how they were.  So I just tried to walk up as slowly as possible and held out my hand for them to see.  After a couple of them licked my hand, I felt like it was safe enough to start the rescue.  I grabbed some bolt cutters from my truck and went to work."

After freeing the first reindeer, the rest of the group immediately calmed down and allowed Maple to help the rest of the group.  After he freed the last one, it followed Maple back to his truck to apparently say 'thank you'.

 

"When I cut the last one loose, I figured he'd just run away like the rest of them, so I just walked back to my truck to get ready to go home.  And when I turned around, he was right there behind me.  He gave me a little nod as if to say thanks, before trotting off and joining the rest of the group.  Hopefully they all ended up alright because that blizzard was nasty.  I don't think any of them were hurt too badly by the fence, either."

 

That wasn't the end of the story for Maple, however. When the snow subsided, he had to return back to the location and apologize to the homeowner.

"I had to go apologize for cutting his fence, but he was a good sport about it.  I offered to help him fix it, but he was just glad none of them were hurt.  Luckily, he didn't hold it over my head or anything.  I think hooking him up with some box seats to the next Wolves game helped smooth things over," Maple said.