Trumbull man builds a shelter for deer in his backyard

Trumbull resident Rob Fabrizi said it breaks his heart to see deer soaked in the pouring rain, so he decided to do something about it.

Fabrizi said deer regularly gather in his backyard, often in a group of three does and two fawns. He said the animals feed on grass and surrounding trees and sometimes sleep in his yard at night.

“I’m an animal lover,” Fabrizi said. “You develop that bond with them.”

Over a recent weekend, Fabrizi and a crew from his construction company, Innovative Construction Group, built what he calls the “Rainy Deer Pavilion.” The structure was built with materials like pressure-treated lumber, 6-by-6 wooden posts, an aluminum roof and a concrete floor. The crew built the pavilion around a tree, leaving an area of grass where the deer can graze. A gutter system channels rainwater into a repurposed keg equipped with a filtration system before the water flows into a trough for the deer. Fabrizi said he hopes to convert the pavilion’s existing lighting to solar power and possibly install a heating system. 

“They took to it real quick,” Fabrizi said, describing how the deer began using the shelter during a recent rainstorm. “At the end of the day, it’s such an amazing feeling when you see what your vision and what you wanted actually work.”

Fabrizi said his crew volunteered their time to build the pavilion, continuing a tradition of helping one another with personal projects. He said he and his workers previously built an addition to one crew member’s house and a patio for another at no charge. The workers’ wives and children were also at Fabrizi’s house during construction and his mother prepared a homemade Italian dinner for everyone, he added.

“We’re a family. We’re a team,” Fabrizi said.

After sharing his new structure on the social networking site Nextdoor in October, Fabrizi received positive feedback from residents, including some interested in building similar shelters. The post received more than 440 likes as of Oct. 19. For those interested in creating their own pavilion, Fabrizi said he and his crew would build similar structures at reduced labor rates, with materials sold at cost. He said the shelters could be customized in size. Fabrizi also created an eight-page do-it-yourself construction manual featuring a shopping list, step-by-step instructions and details about installing the rainwater collection system.

“I love that people are wanting to do the same thing,” Fabrizi said.