Mr. and Mrs. Robyn and Rachel Largent were relaxing at their home outside of Plains, MT on Thursday evening (7/7), sitting on the back porch watching the weather activity as a thunderstorm rolled through the area when Robyn received a call from his neighbor.

Video still by Rachel Largent, used with permission
Video still by Rachel Largent, used with permission
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"Hey, can you come over and give me a hand with something?", their neighbor asked. Doing what Montanan's do... Largent said, "sure, I'll be right over." The neighbor had been digging a trench in his yard to run power to a newly constructed shop. Wedged tightly in the narrow trench, was an upside-down, whitetail doe. Largent thought for sure it was dead, but the scared little momma deer was very much alive.

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Photo by Acton Crawford on Unsplash
Photo by Acton Crawford on Unsplash
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The deer was stuck tightly.

When attempts to free the deer by hand failed, Great Falls native Largent did what any good neighbor would do and grabbed his forklift loader and some rope. The men first tried pulling the deer from the trench with ropes attached to two legs of the struggling doe, but she wouldn't budge. The men reattached the rope to all four of her legs and began slowly raising the forks of the loader. The stuck deer popped free, leaped to her feet, and bounded away, apparently unharmed. You've got to check out the video below.

Our love/hate relationship with deer.

Montanans like to hunt deer. We hate it when they destroy our gardens or freshly planted trees. Or when they run into the road. If you haven't hit one yet, at some point you probably will. We rank tenth in the nation for vehicle/deer collisions and data says you have a 1 in 77 chance of smacking into a deer in the Treasure State. But we're also not heartless when it comes to Odocoileus virginianus, the smallest member of the North American deer family. This deer rescue video was just what I needed today. Thank you, Robyn and Rachel Largent for allowing me to share your story.

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