Update On The Bismarck Area’s Favorite Deer Jonnie & EHD

A couple of weeks back I was walking for pheasants not too far from my house south of Lincoln, North Dakota when I ran into a rather sad sight.  I counted around 20 dead deer in this quarter section tract of land.  The EHD disease is really bad around Bismarck.  You can read about that here.

EHD is so bad over parts of North Dakota that the Game and Fish is offering thousands of refunds for licenses for deer hunters.

As I was walking this piece of land, all I could think of was "Jonnie" the deer.  A sweet deer I got to know up close and personal earlier this year.  I was hoping this terrible disease didn't get to her.

I brought my family out to meet Jonnie at the farm she sleeps at south of Sterling, North Dakota just about every night.  It didn't take Jonnie long to warm up to us.  She was literally eating out of our hands.

Jonnie was a rescue deer.  Her mother and sibling were killed and hit by a car.  The Fallgatters nursed Jonnie back to health and she's been a fixture around their farm for years now.  Jonnie is also known as "Ruth" to other area folks as Jonnie makes her rounds to about a dozen farms.

I reached out Brenna Guenther who lives on one of the farms in the area and she told me Jonnie is fine and doing well.  Jonnie also gave birth to a couple of fawns this past June and they're doing well too.  Here's a photo that Brenna sent to me.  Just Jonnie hanging out on the porch enjoying some food with the cats.  Such a cool story.