[Unrersvar]

14:43 GMT, 15 June 2012

An unusual friendship between a Great Dane and orphaned deer has inspired a
children's book.

Kate & Pippin: An Unlikely Love Story tells the story of how Isobel Springett, a photographer
from Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada, found an abandoned baby deer in 2008 and
took it in. After bottle feeding powdered goat's milk to the fawn, which she called Pippin, she watched
in amazement as her pet dog Kate began mothering it.




The duo became inseparable - allowing Ms Springett to take a series of amazing pictures of them
strolling around the garden and rolling around in the grass at her home.

They are now so famous they their own website and Facebook page.

Recalling her discovery of Pippin, Ms Springett said: 'We saw the tiny fawn wandering near our house,
looking for its mother and crying - it was hard to ignore.

'We brought it into the house and our dog Kate was on her bed, so we put the fawn beside her for
warmth.



'Over the next few days the two bonded.'

After a week or so in the house, Pippin decided she would prefer to sleep outside - and her canine
friend missed her, said Ms Springett.

'Often, Kate would go off searching for her, coming back triumphantly with Pip in tow.

'They spent hours playing in our front garden.

'Even when Pip became a mature doe, she and Kate still played together. They remain the best of
friends.'



Ms Springett's decision to adopt the black-tailed deer has been criticised by some, however.

Wildlife biologist Jeff Morgan, who has studied deer living on Vancouver Island, said it was illegal to
take in wild animals.

He told the Macleans.Ca site: 'In the case of deer, very often the mothers will leave the fawns and go
off to forage and they will leave for prolonged periods of time.

'People see this and mistake it for a case of abandonment.

'With good intentions, they will take that fawn, but, unwittingly, they’re removing that fawn from its
natural environment and its mother.'

Sylvia Campbell at the North Island Wildlife Recovery Association told Macleans.Ca: 'Unfortunately, this
woman is an uninformed person. I’m really against this book. I don’t believe this is a healthy story to
get out to people.'