It wasn’t the best start to the day.

At 7pm I took my almost daily walk along the sea front and around the beautiful cemetery we have here in Campbeltown. As good a place to be dead as you could imagine.

It lies on the edge of Bein Ghuilean, and I sometimes see deer grazing on the green grass of the graveyard in the early morning. I saw one this time, but it was not running free. This one was screeching like a banshee, and was clearly trapped in some way.

I watched to start with, from about 30 metres away, knowing that getting closer would cause it to panic more. I’d been in a similar situation before when another deer I came across managed to set itself free from some barbed wire without any assistance

But things didn’t look good for this one. It appeared to be hanging off the side of a wall. As I watched, what may have been its mother and a sibling arrived, and started pacing anxiously and then nuzzling, nose to nose, with the poor animal. They didn’t even see me to start with. When they did they inevitably ran away.

I approached cautiously, which predictably caused the young deer to start flailing about even more. And also meant that I could see the horrific situation it had got itself into. Somehow it had slipped from a wall onto the sharp pointed section of an old iron gate. One of the points had gone right through its hind leg. And it was hanging from the gate in this way, unable to support itself at all.

There was no way I could have helped it without making things worse for the deer and getting injured myself. And I didn’t have a phone on me, so starting running back towards Campbeltown. I knocked on a door of the house of somebody I knew, fortunately not too far away. They let me ring an out of hours emergency vet number, who told me they would get hold of someone immediately.

I started to head back, but not knowing what else I could do (the cemetery workmen weren’t around yet, nor was anybody else) I turned and headed home. Thirty minutes later I got a phone call from the vet who, despite my fairly clear description, hadn’t been able to find the deer. It is a big graveyard.

So I drove over to meet up with her. We found it still hanging. As suspected there was nothing she could do, and she was visibly upset. The young deer was a lot weaker, forty minutes after I’d first seen it, but still very much alive.

We managed to put a towel over its head, which calmed it a little. And as I supported its weight the vet gave it a lethal injection to the heart. Seconds later the struggle and the pain was over.

I was just glad it was beyond suffering. After removing the sad victim from its cruel instrument of death, I carried it back to the vet’s car. She told me that it would not be buried but cremated, as the injection could endanger other animals that might potentially feed on it.

Covered in blood I returned home again.

Sometimes, “Cheer Up” isn’t the right song for the occasion. But that’s the title that came up today. I won’t link to it on this occasion.