The circle of life remained unbroken in one east metro suburb, where a city maintenance manager spelunked his way into a storm drain and brought a fawn back to street level.

The young deer was given a second chance at adulthood Friday thanks to its rescue from below Glenmar Avenue in Mahtomedi, according to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office.

Bob Goebel, the city’s lead maintenance operator, removed the metal cover from the curbside drain and lowered himself through the snug rectangular opening, then resurfaced with the spotted fawn held firmly in the crook of his left arm. The Sheriff’s Office speculated in a Facebook posting that one deer had followed another into the drain, but “only Thumper was able to get back out.”

Goebel has been around the block before in his city when it comes to wild kingdom encounters. In August 2012, he was driving along Lincolntown Avenue when he spotted — and organized the capture of — a 4-foot-long Nile monitor lizard in Wildwood Park.

Paul Walsh