Exactly seven days later, on Friday night, May 7, 1999, Sherry and her daughter, Diana Shay (age 14), drove back home from town.  At about 10:30 PM, they rounded a corner at 50 mph, only to spot a tiny, whitetail deer fawn in the center of the road! 

Sherry swerved to the side of the road to avoid running over the baby deer.  When she looked in her rearview mirror, she saw that the fawn had never moved. Realizing the next car rounding the bend would kill the fawn, Sherry told Diana Shay to jump out of the car and get the deer, before it was run over.  Diana Shay chased the deer off the farm road into the brush, where it stopped again. 

Sherry went over to the fawn, which still had its umbilical cord attached.  The baby fawn was covered in fire ants, and had porcupine quills sticking out of the top of its head, like a unicorn!  Apparently, the mother of the fawn had abandoned it, after it got into a fire ant bed, and then somehow also managed to fall into a porcupine!  Somehow it managed to make its way to the center of the farm road!  For being only a few hours old, it had already experienced a pretty hard life!

Sherry picked up the tiny fawn up and brought it home, where Max and Sherry removed all the ants, and pulled out the porcupine quills with pliers.  Realizing that the doe had to abandon the fawn because she couldn’t nurse it, due to the quills protruding from the top of the fawn’s skull, Sherry wanted to feed the fawn, to give it a chance to live. 

The Holy Spirit then reminded Sherry of her prayer a week earlier, and her request about God bringing her His wild animals.  Sherry told Max about the “vision” and he was convinced the fawn probably was a direct answer to her prayers.  Therefore, Max agreed to let her nurse it back to health, if she would agree to release it on their ranch, once it was capable of surviving on its own.  Sherry was delighted!

Please note that it is illegal to capture and hold whitetail deer, without a special permit from the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department.  The mothers of baby deer are not far away, even though the fawns appear to be abandoned.  Therefore, please do not disturb any fawn you find in the wild.  However, in the case of Sherry’s fawn, the Greiners were convinced this really was a “rescue”, rather than a “kidnapping”!

Sherry immediately contacted local wildlife rehabilitation experts to learn the proper care and feeding of a newborn fawn.  She got up at all hours of the night, to nurse and care for the baby deer, which she named “Buttercup”.   Eventually, the deer was old enough to live on its own and was released on the Greiner ranch, where it lives to this day. 

However, “Buttercup” never forgot Sherry’s loving care!

“Buttercup”, who is now full grown, comes several times each day to the Greiner’s door, to be petted, hugged and fed by Sherry.  It actually comes when she calls its name, and even plays “tag” with her!  On some evenings “Buttercup” takes long walks on the ranch with the Greiners, and their dog!  This is a very special deer!

To insure that hunters didn’t shoot “Buttercup”, Sherry placed a red dog collar around its neck.  The local wildlife officials told the Greiners there is no law prohibiting dog collars on deer!

In the years that have passed, God has brought many other wild animals to Sherry, in the most amazing and supernatural ways.  Her wild pets have included whitetail deer, raccoons, porcupines, squirrels, cottontail rabbits, jackrabbits, ringtail cats, whitewing doves, roadrunners and Rio Grande wild turkeys.  Sherry even “claims” a lizard named “Lizzy”, who lives outside the door under a rock.  It often comes out to watch Sherry pet and feed her other wild animal friends.

At dusk one evening, as Max worked in his studio office, he looked outside his window.  There in front of him was Sherry, surrounded by all kinds of wild animals.  Realizing this was the fulfillment of the “vision” God had given Sherry years before, he grabbed his camera to capture the prophetic moment.  Max took a photograph of Sherry with three deer and two whitewing doves, sitting on her head and arm!  The raccoons and one porcupine were also nearby, but outside of the picture!

One day a visitor to the Greiner ranch told Max and Sherry,  “Your art and house are just beautiful.  And, the golden Glory Dust is amazing!  But, those wild animals that come up to Sherry, that is just amazing! 

God indeed has given Sherry the “desires of her heart”, and a unique anointing with animals that is quite amazing to watch.

Click here to visit “Sherry’s Animals” website.