...An Extraordinary Bunny!
-by S. Jebb
On August 16
th about 8:30 am I was catching up on paperwork on the patio. Three of our four cats were hanging around. Two are hunters and one is very large and has no clue on how to hunt or climb a tree. He’s another story. I went inside to get a class of water. That was the end of my quiet morning. As I went out the door I heard a tremendous amount of squealing. I noticed one hunter (Tigger who most likely dug it out of the nest / hole) intent on watching our great white hunter – Yetti. Yetti had something in his mouth. At first I thought it was a ground squirrel or mouse. It just didn’t look right so I went to see what they had. As I approached Yetti, he dropped it to show me. Oh my goodness…they had a baby rabbit, ears back and eyes closed. Maybe three days old. It quit squealing. I’m freaking out as I am not the kind of girl that picks up anything wild. I was a true city girl whose husband loved living in the country and so we live on acreage. On this day he was sleeping late and since it was quiet I thought he’d like the extra sleep. So now what was I going to do? I picked it up and noticed a gash in it’s side. Thank goodness no blood. It was still breathing so I figured it could be saved I just didn’t know how to do it.
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Searching the internet quickly I found what I thought would be the best to start feeding it. Goats milk and I knew the grocery store had it in cans in the baking isle. The problem was…no tiny, extra tiny eye droppers were to be found. Even the pet stores didn’t have them this small. Steve went to his shop in search of finding something to use to feed her. He got lucky and found a very tiny oil dropper he had never used.
On Sunday the 17th, we were able to get a weight – 2.2 oz. We were off to a rough start on feeding as she didn’t want a bottle for two days. She took a few drops now and then. On the 21st her eyes opened and her appetite picked up. Saturday morning she was outside of her box. Thank goodness we had put the box in a large cabinet. Three cats were focused on the cabinet. They are true country cats and nothing moves on this property without them knowing it. I doubt there will ever be a friendship as they will continue to think of her as dinner. Only Yetti was absent – ready to go out and do his morning rounds. As of today she is 3.1 oz and her new home is a small animal carrier. And the other big news today is that she has started to use a litter box. We have such high hopes…on to find the right hutch for her. Piddles got her name as we were trying to do what her mom would have done for her. Our timing was once again off and well you can imagine what happened. I call Piddles a “her” and someday we might find out we have a boy. As you can see she has adapted from a feral life to one of luxury.
Learn More About Rabbits:
Rabbit Tracks!
Although we thought you'd enjoy this story,
KCVF does not treat rabbits, only cats and dogs!
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