FARMINGTON - The next time Kirk Kimel spots a fawn on the road or in the woods, he won't pick it up like he did Thursday.

"I'll leave it alone," the 35-year-old Farmington man said. "Lesson learned. I didn't know if the deer had lost its mother. I should have left it right in the bushes."

He had been hearing "you should have left it alone" all morning, he said, when he tried to get in touch with people to help the animal.

Angela and Kirk Kimel went for a walk Thursday morning on Holley Road, where the couple lives, and saw an animal cross a side road and go into some deep grass and over a bank.

Kimel said he saw spots and the back of the animal and thought it might have been a young bobcat.

When he got close to the animal, he saw that it was a small deer, and the animal lay down as if it were trying to hide, he said.

A tree had fallen in the area a couple nights before, Kimel said, and he thought the fawn may have gotten separated from its mother.

He was worried about the deer and the traffic on the road, which he says goes too fast at times, so he picked up the tiny animal and took it home.

He put it in his vehicle and took it to his son's school to show him and eventually took it back home.

He finally contacted Donna Cote, a state-permitted wildlife rehabilitator in New Sharon, who agreed to come to the couple's house.

Cote said she knew Kimel was well-intended but if someone sees wildlife such as a fawn in the woods, they should leave it alone unless it is in imminent danger of being harmed.

The fawn's mother would be back, she said. It probably left her baby to go feed, she added. She said people should not feed wildlife.

She walked into the couple's house and was directed to where the animal had gone behind a stand with two large bird cages on it. Several cockatiels were perched on the other side of the room.

Cote looked behind the stand and said, "It's very newborn. It's only a few days old."

She asked Himel to show where he found the animal.

They walked to the spot and Cote peered into the woods to see if there were signs of the animal's mother or another fawn. Usually, a doe will have two fawns at a time, she said.

"I think because of the location so close to the road, I'm going to take it," Cote said.

Kimel said the area was a high traffic area.

Cote asked that if the couple saw the mother or another fawn in the area to give her a call.

She would like to release the animal back into the wild, and it would be best if it could be released in the same area. But she would also look for another fawn to pair it with so it could be released.

Deer are so skittish, she said, they get stressed easy and can die from that stress.

"I'd love to put it back," Cote said, "but it is so close to the road."

They have no defenses, she added.

Himel brought out a crate for the animal so Cote could take it home.

"I hate taking it from its mother, but I'd rather be safe than sorry," Angela Kimel said.

Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife spokeswoman Deborah Turcotte said "We encourage people to leave wildlife alone."

Their motto, she said, is "If you care, leave them there."