Nature's a Bitch

Yesterday, after going to lunch, we were all enjoying a break from the weekend of rain we had by playing in the yard. Hubby was pulling weeds, the boys were running around, and I was seeing which of my plants were being killed by slugs.

Suddenly, Fergus, one of our dogs, leaped out from under a rhododendron plant with a squeaking small animal in his mouth. I thought it was a rodent of some sort, and screamed in my, "eek, a mouse!" way. This is a rather new female behavior I never had as a child. I always had various rodents for pets and to get the creepy crawlies from a rodent...well, I'm a bit embarrassed by that! But I guess it's different to see one in your garage (happened this winter, and I shrieked and ran into the house) or outside, versus behind glass in a pet store.

Anyway, Hubby grabbed Fergus, who fortunately, being a bird dog, has a soft mouth, and let go of the squeaking animal, leaving it unharmed. It was a baby rabbit. As soon as I figured that out, I immediately went from "ew" to "awww!" We found the nest the bunny had come from, with its 6 siblings intact, looking equally cute, then went inside to figure out what to do about the bunnies, bringing the dogs with us. I looked online, and the website I read said the best chance for survival was to leave the bunnies, fix the nest as best as possible, and check to make sure the mother has returned. The mother is supposed to only come to the bunnies at dusk and dawn, and it wasn't supposed to be an issue that they smelled like dogs or humans, as long as no one was around the nest when she returned. OK, super!

I fixed up the nest, took a picture of one of the adorable babies, and put it back in the nest and covered it with grass, then put garden fencing around to keep the dogs out.

This morning, I didn't have time to check the nest before leaving to take Hutton to speech therapy - just saw that the fence was still in place. In the afternoon, when we got home, I checked the nest, and was saddened to see that the mother had not returned, and half of the bunnies were dead, and three were on their last legs. Apparently, bunnies really need that 5 minutes of nursing they missed, plus the mother has to help them rid their little bodies of toxins through the urine, which they can't eliminate on their own. I brought the three bunnies that were still alive inside in a box, and attempted to give them a dropper of milk, but one was already fading and stiffening, and the other two didn't seem to know what to do with the milk. I put them outside in a new nest in an area that dogs can't get to, and buried the dead bunnies near them.

It was just so sad to see those tiny little bodies, but that's how nature is. If a rabbit decides to make her nest in a yard that smells like dogs and humans, I'm not really sure what she expects to happen to her babies. Then I think that maybe she couldn't get through the fence to get back to her nest, but it was big enough that a cat could fit through, and there was lots of space at the bottom to crawl under. I thought maybe she would have moved the bunnies to a new nest rather than just abandoning them. Sigh. Rest in peace, sweet bunnies.

Bunny