Mostly likely she was the eldest doe(matriarch) of that particular family of does. Does in their home range will stay together for years in a matriarch family group consisting of an adult doe, her doe offspring and their offspring...kind of like a grandma doe like mentioned above. That is vary common and many times the lead doe will possibly be a barren doe but keeps her former offspring close. Of course a doe will push off her button buck offspring early in the fall to prevent inbreeding, the yearling bucks will leave the homerange which is called yearling dispersal.

Also like mentioned above, a deer can pattern you before you can pattern a deer....think of it like this....when you walk into your house, you know where everything is, if something is amiss, you notice it....this doe did the same thing......she new something wasn't right, found you and looked for you again. That's not uncommon.....she probably did find you not there on days you were not and it is also likely had you picked the right tree, you might not have got a shot at her. You actually brought a good lesson for all of us.