MASSANUTTEN, Va (WRIC) — A photo of a 4-year-old Virginia boy smiling next to a baby deer is nothing short of adorable.
The boy’s mother, Stephanie Brown, says she was stunned on the front porch Tuesday morning to see her son with his new, furry friend.
“I couldn’t even tell you, I was in shock. I was like, ‘No way. My mind is playing games with me,” Brown said Wednesday.
Her son, Dominic, seemed to be an animal whisperer — perhaps his pajamas imprinted with Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer possibly attracted the small creature.
Brown’s family said they were preparing to return home to Virginia’s Northern Neck after a short getaway near Shenandoah National Park when Dominic made the discovery in the woods.
“On one of my trips, I remember I went back into the kitchen, and I was getting something out of the refrigerator, and I peep my head around because I heard him kind of wiping his little boots on the mat,” Brown said.
“I was like ‘OK, he’s getting ready to come in.’ So I turn my head and there it is. It’s like a little baby deer and him. Like, it wasn’t anything strange for him. It was really weird,” she said.
Brown posted the photo on her Facebook page Tuesday morning and garnished 10,000 post shares as of Wednesday evening.
Brown carefully caught the moment on camera.
“I did not move my eyes off of them. And I’m just like whipping it [my cell phone] out slowly and boom,” she said.
Without hesitation, Dominic picked a name, “Flash,” the superhero, an unintended metaphor of the pair’s brief encounter.
Brown said Dominic didn’t act as though anything was out of the ordinary. When she asked her son where he found the deer, he said it was by itself and he was going to give it cereal.
Brown said Dominic and the deer acted like “best friends” but unfortunately, Dominic didn’t get a new pet that day.
After taking pictures, Brown asked Dominic to lead the deer back to the woods. The 4-year-old did as he was asked and the deer followed him back to its proper home.