Baby Bunny Update

Some good and bad news on the bunnies. I suspected that they had been abandoned by their mother, because they were on top of the dirt for several days and had that wild-eyed abandoned-I'm-starving-help-me-who-the-hell-are-these-giants-looking-at-us look, and would dig furiously every time one of us came out the door to look at them. So, I thought briefly of getting an eye-dropper and feeding them warm milk, but remembered what my friend Judy told me about baby bunnies. She says they succumb easily to heart attacks when they are frightened, and for that reason wild baby bunnies cannot be raised by humans. Well, based on their reaction every time I came out I believe, but I couldn't just let them starve. So I did what any 10-year old would do - I set out a saucer of warm milk in the flower bed. Huddled together and shivering, they just stared with what looked like one huge eye. A couple of hours later I go out to check on them, and in their struggle and haste to get as far away from me as they could they kicked dirt and bark into the saucer of milk trying to dig into the dirt. So I took the saucer of milk away. Perhaps, I'm thinking, they are already weaned, and their mother just pushed them from the nest and wants them to find their own food. So, of course, I did what any 10-year old would do in these desperate circumstances and grated a carrot. I took the grated carrot out and sprinkled it in the dirt, and ignored the babies as they desperately tried to get away from me, tiny rear legs kicking frantically.

A couple of hours later I looked out the window and saw two things trying to make their way to the deck - a squirrel and a rabbit. Barging out the back door I yelled at the greedy squirrel to get away - I know he was after the grated carrots. The squirrels around here are the size of footballs; I can't figure out for the life of me how they can climb trees without breaking branches. The rabbit hopped away, but reluctantly, so I was happy, and assumed this was Mama coming back from her 4-day bender, or whatever she was up to. I wish there was such a thing as rabbit birth control, because that irresponsible ho was probably out there getting pregnant again, and then thought, "oh yeah! I have hungry, dependent babies!" before getting up off her back and coming back to the yard.

So the next afternoon, I go out to check on things, and there is this poor, pitiful little body, no bigger than a gerbil, lying lifeless in the dirt. The runt. The one that wasn't vigorous. The other two are gone. I figure she came back for her brood, and cruel nature, she only took the healthy ones and left the runt, or possibly even helped him out of this cruel world. But the two kickers are definately gone. Hopefully, I will see them again someday, and chase them out of my garden.