NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. (WHDH) -- A couple in North Andover rescued a tiny fawn from their garage and nursed it back to health.

When Joe Osbaldeston first came upon the baby deer in his North Andover garage he didn’t think it was real.

“I thought it was plastic honestly.”

Then he realized it was close to death. So he took the deer home.

Osbaldeston and his wife Peggy Patenaude tried to nurse the deer back to health using an eye dropper.

“I had to basically force her mouth open, put the eye dropper in then I kind of got the hang of it and realized if I put it in far enough and could squirt a little formula, she would swallow it.”

Slowly the fawn regained her strength, and stayed the night.

Patenaude said, “She just started staring up at me and purring like a kitten.”

The following day, Osbaldeston and Patenaude decided it was time to say good-bye and let the deer go behind the garage where they found it.

Osbaldeston said the mother was waiting for the fawn, “An adult deer emerges from the forest to our right and starts walking toward the baby and you know, she was cautious and they walked off together and off into the woods so it was the perfect ending for her.”