Bambi's best friend: Incredible moment dog rescues drowning deer

A dog from Long Island, New York is being hailed a hero after video emerged of him rescuing a deer that was drowning off a nearby beach.

Mark Freeley, of East Setauket, was walking with his dog Storm when the pooch noticed something in the water in Port Jefferson Harbour.

Storm jumped in and ended up dragging a deer back to shore.

"Storm just plunged into the water and started swimming out to the fawn, grabbed it by the neck, and started swimming to shore," Freeley said to CBS News.

"And then he started nudging it, and started pulling it to make sure he was gonna be okay guess," Freeley said.

When Storm got back to shore, he put the deer down and laid down next to it, encouraging it to stand up once more.

Clearly, the poor deer was exhausted from its ordeal and its close call with death.
Freeley then called animal rescue who ended up scaring the fawn back into the water.

After about eight minutes, Freeley and a member of Strong Island Rescue were able to once again save the deer for a second time, the Daily Mail reported.

When the animal was taken to a vet to get checked out it was found to be covered in ticks and had an eye injury.

After being put in a quiet room to rest, the deer will now receive fluids and food.

The Strong Island Animal Rescue League said when the animal is old enough it will be released back into the wild.

The video of the rescue was posted online over the weekend and generated more than 81,000 shares and 17,000 likes.