Caring dog saves drowning baby deer and wants to stay by its side

• Harley is a kind-hearted, six-year-old Goldendoodle.
• One day, his owner Ralph Dorn saw the pup helping out a drowning fawn and taking care of her until she’s settled down.
• Ralph shared the story on Facebook, which went viral and had reached about 250,000 shares!

One early evening, Ralph Dorn was looking for his six-year-old Goldendoodle, Harley.

As his eyes surveyed the lake behind his home, Ralph was surprised to spot the pup about 200 feet from shore. What was more amusing was the tiny animal Harley was swimming with — which he later on realized was a tiny fawn.

Harley paddled side-by-side with the baby deer and brought it to the shore.

Amazed, Ralph shared what he witnessed on Facebook, which went viral and had been shared for over 250,000 times. “Not sure how the fawn got out there but Harley obviously didn’t ask why, he just jumped into action.”

Upon reaching the land, Ralph met the two and helped the fawn up a steep ledge. When Ralph thought his dog’s assistance was over, he was astonished when Harley began gently licking the tiny deer’s face as soon as she was placed on the grass, looking like he wanted to really take care of her.

“Harley didn’t want to leave the fawn,” the fur dad told PEOPLE.  “He just kept interacting with it, licking it, caring for it.”

Shortly after, the fawn’s mother appeared, which signaled Ralph to leave the shore, taking Harley with him to their home nearby. The doe waited until Ralph and Harley were gone before walking off with her baby.

That night could be the end of Harley and the fawn’s instant friendship, but to Ralph’s surprise, the two met again the next morning!

While the 62-year-old retired Marine Corps pilot was having coffee with his wife, Patricia, 64, he noticed that “Harley got restless running from window to window.” He then opened the door and that was when he heard the fawn bleating.

“Harley ran into the tree line and found the fawn,” Ralph wrote on the Facebook post. “The little one stopped bleating, tail wagging, they touched noses sniffed each other and Harley came calmly back to the house with me.”

Harley’s brief reunion with the fawn calmed the baby deer down, and in a jiff, she and her mom were gone again.

What Ralph witnessed wasn’t new to him. He knows how much caring Harley is.

“We could tell right away, even as a puppy, he had such a good heart. He has always been like that with children and animals. He loves them all,” Ralph shared.

What took him and his wife by surprise was the warm reaction of people who saw the Facebook post.

“We were just amazed,” said Pat, a retired navy nurse. “We had no idea of the reaction.”

“We’re very happy that it has touched so many people,” Ralph added, “and brought joy to so many as well.”

Source: PEOPLE.com