Our Bunnies

In the process of deciding to expand our garden and put pumpkins along our back fence, we came across this furry creature. Michal was pulling out a root, and as he was pulling it out - it flung this animal into the air. We immediately got a shoebox and captured it and went next door to ask our neighbor what it was.

We woke up our neighbor (oops), a biologist, and asked him what kind of an animal this was. He said it was a mole or a vole and to immediately kill it. The best way would be to just put a string around the shoebox and throw it in the garbage. So we did.

But then I came home and something just didn't sit right. After looking at pictures through Google, and showing my dad the creature, we deduced that this wasn't a mole or vole - but a bunny! And this poor baby bunny was away from it's nest and needed to be reintegrated into it's nest if it wanted any chance of survival.

I put the bunny back where we originally found the bunny, in hopes that the mother would take the bunny back to the other babies in the nest. But the following morning, the bunny was still in the same place and shivering from the rain. My heart hurt for this bunny, I was the one who ripped him from his home and I wanted him to be happy and safe. I'd feel terrible if my baby bunny died due to my negligence.

So I watched the mother bunny carefully. I watched her day and night to see where she went, and once she disappeared, I went to where she was to see if it was near a nest. I got lucky and I found the nest. 

The next thing do to was place the baby with its siblings. So I picked up a towel and wrapped the baby bunny inside and gently placed the bunny with its siblings. As soon as the bunny found its brothers and sisters, the whole nest appeared to rearrange itself to snuggle the cold, shivering bunny. 

I continued to watch this bunny to make sure that it was doing okay. And one day I noticed that there weren't three bunnies in the nest (one being our baby bunny we kidnapped and rescued), but that there were four bunnies!

Lily was concerned about the bunnies and wanted to leave them some snacks. (They did not eat them).

As soon as the bunnies grew it was so fun to go outside and watch them hop around our back yard. The Mommy bunny was teaching the bunnies how to integrate into the space beyond their home. We had to be careful where we walked because they would hide in our tall grass, or jump out near our flower bushes. After the Mommy bunny felt like they were ready for the outside world she filled in the nest with mud so that they couldn't return.

But the bunnies found a new home! My garden. Almost every time I went to water, collect vegetables, or check on my garden the bunnies darted out from under my bushes. They were the culprits of all my beans being eaten, several of my pepper plants being eaten, and all my cucumber and watermelon plants didn't live past several days because the bunnies found them tasty to eat.

Eventually they went away. Lily and Marco still ask what happened to the baby bunnies or where they went. The Mommy bunny still hangs around my back yard (she is easy to distinguish because her right ear is split - probably by a cat or another animal trying to get her). 

Who knows? Maybe there will be a round two later this year - or another fun surprise of baby bunnies next year!