Stressful Day? Here Are 8 Pictures of Audrey Hepburn With Her Pet Deer

The Austin Film Society offices are abuzz with activity in preparation for the Texas Film Awards and the Texas Party next week. It’s a huge endeavor with major guests, many attendees, an enormous stage set-up and international press coverage. It’s a lot of fun and a lot of work.

There are schedules to be made, lights to be mounted, catering to be organized, voltages to be calibrated, flights to be changed, music and video cues to be refined, volunteers to be supervised. All these preparatory details are managed by our team of staff members, event coordinators, interns and volunteers and, not surprisingly, right around now people start getting that harried, cross-eyed look.

So for all the Texas Film Awards and Texas Party staff, and anyone else who might be having a stress-filled week, here are 12 photos of Audrey Hepburn and her pet deer Pippin – she called him “Ip.” It all started when she was cast in the 1959 film GREEN MANSIONS directed by her then-husband Mel Ferrer. Her character in the film had a special bond with a baby fawn so she took the faun home with her to LA to bond. It worked. They ended up spending a lot of time together and were photographed numerous times.

Reportedly after the shoot she and Ferrer kept Ip but here the historical documentation falls apart. I’m going to speculate that they set Ip free in a big wild, beautiful sanctuary where there are no predators and where deer live forever.