By Lisa Deppe
On Sunday afternoon, during the hottest part of the day, sergeant Dale Stoebe and officer Jarvis Leishman, of the Lakeport Police Department, spent an hour rescuing a baby deer from certain death. Somehow a fawn, still fresh with spots, had gotten trapped inside a gated parking lot. Its mother was nowhere to be found and the poor thing was desperately looking for a way to get out.
With no food or water and the temperature over 100, it seemed that this pitiful little creature would probably soon die. Flagging down Sergeant Stoebe, I asked if he could help. With Officer Leishman”s assistance they opened the gate. The baby deer, already panicked, ran behind the building. Three times Sergeant Stoebe went behind the building to chase the deer to the front so it could find the opening in the gate. But each time the fawn ran to the corners of the fence, before bolting back behind the building. Finally, the officers came up with a winning strategy. They moved their vehicles away from the gate and out of the deer”s sight. This time, when they chased the deer back to the front of the building, they stayed back. This allowed the deer more time to find the opening in the gate, cross South Main Street, and head for the lake.
The fawn surely had no idea that the officers had truly saved its life, but I was impressed that these officers would be so persistent and compassionate. That they would help someone in the community, simply because I asked, showed a great deal of caring.
Lisa Deppe
