LIBBY — Sally Fuchs wants to set a few things straight.

Yes, she lives in Washington, but she is a Libby native. No, she does not hate wildlife or wish unusual harm on deer.

And yes, it was her phone call that eventually led to the death of the Libby town deer many people called Spanky.

Fuchs first learned of the death of the 5-point buck she called Fritzy in a text message from her son.

Her son learned from a Western News story that was published Sept. 20. Fuchs suspected as much after a call four days earlier from Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks requesting permission to enter her property at 203 E. Second St.

“I wanted his welfare more than anyone,” Fuchs said. “We’ve watched that deer and his family for years.”

Fuchs and her husband, Mike, own their property in Libby but moved to Gold Bar, Wash., five years ago after a decade of Mike commuting to Washington for work.

After learning of the newspaper article, Fuchs went to the online comments. She could not believe the anger people felt toward her. She read them again and again. She could not sleep. She cried.

The call that started it all was nothing more than a wife venting to her husband.

“He always has ideas when I have a problem,” Fuchs said. “I don’t know what I expected from Mike.”

Fuchs was back in town for six days to visit friends and to get her lungs checked at the Center for Asbestos Related Diseases.

She found the deer in her front yard for the second night in a row. The previous night, she threw a couple of rocks at him. Eventually, he walked into the backyard where he chewed on plums and apples.

This time she threw a big rock at the mule deer buck. He grunted and stepped toward her. Feeling threatened, Fuchs returned to her car. She had her pistol with her, but she knew she could not fire within city limits.

Feeling trapped in her vehicle, she called her husband in Washington.

Faced with a concerned wife, Mike Fuchs, an avid hunter, thought of stories he had heard of male deer getting aggressive during mating season and hurting, even killing, people.

“Sally called with a what-if situation,” Mike Fuchs said. “I took care of the what if.”

The complaint from Mike Fuchs was among several calls fielded this summer by Fish, Wildlife and Parks about the buck that was an informal town mascot around downtown Libby.

Many complaints concerned the deer’s appetite for flowers. A few other people reported Spanky rubbing his velveted antlers on cars, leaving scratches. One person reported a torn screen door.  

Game warden Tamie Laverdure wanted to tranquilize the deer and transplant him to a wild herd five miles outside town. But state wildlife rules prohibit such a move, so she shot the buck Sept. 16 in a vacant lot downtown.

Both Mike and Sally Fuchs wish the deer could have been tranquilized and transported. Sally Fuchs was hesitant about Mike calling Fish, Wildlife and Parks and admits she initially blamed her husband for the deer’s death.

“Maybe if he hadn’t called, things would have been different,” she said.

Mike Fuchs figures his wife would feel differently had she been attacked and he had not called the appropriate authorities.

“We didn’t want this deer killed,” Sally Fuchs said. “The decision was Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.’”

Johnson is a reporter for The Western News in Libby.