Family Went out Looking for Whales, but Rescued Four Drowning Deer Instead! (PHOTOS)

When Tom Satre and his sister Sharon Kelly went out in a chartered boat to look for whales, they weren’t certain what they would see that day, but we’re pretty sure they didn’t expect to see a group of deer. Confused? So were Satre and Kelly. While the way these four juvenile deer found their way into the cold waters of Alaska’s Stephens Passageway is unknown, what Satre and Kelly did know was that they were in need of assistance.

Satre explained to the Juneau Empire that he had never seen deer in such distress, “They swam right up toward the boat…then, started to circle the boat. They were looking up and looked like they needed help.”

And so, help they received!

Kelly thought she had spotted sea lions in the water, but turns out those ears belonged to the deer!

Satre says the deer were foaming at the mouth, unable to keep themselves above water.

The group quickly swam their way to the boat looking to hop on for a ride to shore.

Once on board, the deer looked so relieved! 

Kelly tells Juneau Empire that while these deer are completely wild and usually skittish around humans, the group was docile and collapsed with utter exhaustion once they got on board.

This little guy’s probably thinking: “why did we ever swim when boats like this exist?”

As the sun began to shine on the boat, the deer warmed up and one even managed to stand up.

Once the boat reached dock, one of the deer immediately jumped up and ran off into the nearby forest. These two needed a little motivation to get them moving again.

But soon, off they went.

Saying a fond goodbye to their rescuers, they made a happy journey back to the forest.

The last and largest of the deer was having trouble warming up, and Satre worried he had been overcome with hypothermia. To help him make the journey back home, Satre put him in a wheelbarrow.

After struggling to walk for a bit, the last deer finally recovered and ventured back into the forest to join his friends.

All image source: Alaska Quest Charters