COEUR d'ALENE - John Lawyer is used to having four-legged visitors, but the one currently in his yard has him very concerned.

"I was opening up the shades in the morning and all of a sudden I saw it lying there," he said Thursday afternoon. "It was staring right at me because the shades were moving. And then I looked close, and then I saw the arrow."

The 88-year-old Coeur d'Alene resident was alarmed to see a carbon fiber arrow protruding several inches from the backside of the frightened, four-point whitetail buck that has been living in his backyard.

"The poor thing is trying to get it out but it can't, you know," Lawyer said. "It breaks me up to see that ... I don't know what to do. I think it's suffering because it pulls its head back and it's trying to get the arrow out."

The buck jumped over his fence Tuesday, but Lawyer can tell the arrow embedded in the creature is causing it pain and preventing its departure.

"I figure that it's bothering it so much that it can't jump," he said. "Normally, they have no trouble jumping that fence."

The arrow can be seen through the buck's skin and has pierced through an unknown length into its back, too shallow to hit any vital organs. Lawyer's daughter, Sue Durtschi of Coeur d'Alene, reported that the buck was not moving much the first two days it was in her dad's yard but it has been able to stand up and walk. It has also attempted to jump the fence but can't quite clear it.

"Shame on this hunter, whoever put it there," Durtschi said. "Don't hunters keep tracking them?"

Durtschi and Lawyer are hoping there is a way to save the buck and remove the arrow. They have made several calls seeking help for the animal, including a few to Idaho Fish and Game, but Lawyer said the Fish and Game officials they spoke with don't seem to think there was much that could be done.

"They said there was nothing they could really do, Mother Nature takes its course," he said.

Josh Stanley, a Fish and Game supervisor in Sandpoint, said if a deer is mortally wounded and can't move, it needs to be put down, but there is some hope because the buck has been feeding on vegetation in the yard and will likely survive.

"We want to help critters. We care about them, that's why we do the jobs we do," Stanley said. "But we don't pay vet bills to take an adult deer to the vet and fix it. We don't have the budget."

Coeur d'Alene Fish and Game wildlife conservation educator Phil Cooper said duty officers only go out when an animal is immobile, as it is extremely difficult to tranquilize a deer that can run.

"We wouldn't be able to capture it if it can take off running," he said. "My guess is, if there's a deer running around with an arrow in it, it was shot after the season ended."

General archery-only season for hunting whitetail deer ended Dec. 24. It is unknown who shot the buck or when it was hit. Dory McIsaac, the executive director and operator of Mystic Farm Wildlife Rescue, Inc. in Sagle, said she would love to help, but she doesn't have sedation-type drugs to tranquilize the buck and her organization mostly deals with fawns and babies that are orphaned.

"I wish I could say yes, but there's nothing I can do," she said. "Options are just leave him and see what happens and maybe he will be fine. If it gets bad and he starts losing weight, Fish and Game will put him down."

Lawyer is considering shoveling the snow away from his gate to allow the buck a way out, but he wishes a veterinarian or someone in the community could safely and humanely sedate the buck and remove the arrow.

"He can't go through life that way," he said. "I feel sorry for the thing."