Darby McRae has a deer friend - and he's fawning all over him.
Hercules is the third orphaned fawn the 20-year-old Rotorua tractor driver has hand reared, with each becoming a part of his extended whanau.
Like his predecessors Bart and Matty, Hercules has the run of Darby's
Nan's garden and when her back's turned he frequently potters around inside, although Darby's Nan and Darby's "missus" Nicole Hornfeck have drawn the line at letting him share Darby's bed as Matty did.
Their prime objection is that, at 3 months old, Hercules isn't yet house trained - and at the rate Darby's feeding him there's rather a lot of cleaning up to do. But Darby has no intention of easing up on the Herculean-sized diet his pet demands.
Each day the stag-in-the-making slurps down several bucketfuls of milk-powder mix, devours a mountain of apples, chomps his way through flowerbeds and howls for his daily dose of chocolate.
Failure to deliver results in a heart-rending cry that, says Darby, "makes the hairs stand up on the back of your neck".
Hercules' latest party trick is peeling oranges.
He stands on the fruit and skins it with his teeth.
If he comes across a stubborn bit he bangs the orange on the ground until the offending portion comes free.
Hercules is also heading dog Page's plaything.
The two romp for hours, with Page dragging Hercules by his ears and feet around the lawn.
Much as Hercules loves the attention from a fellow member of the animal world, when Darby's at work he misses him so much he seeks solace from his master's clothes.
"However well I've washed them Hercules can smell Darby's scent," says Darby's Nan.
"I can't say how often I've caught Herc hauling his pants off the clothesline. He gets them down, stomps on them and butts them."
Darby has no intention of turning his "hard-case mate" into venison stakes. Once this friendly fawn's mature he'll be returned to the farm he came from. There he'll be kept for the good set of antlers he will eventually grow.
