Friday, May 30, 2008

Bunny 911

Yesterday afternoon I came home, expecting to see nothing remaining of the three bunnies that Barney the Dog of Destruction found in our back yard. You may recall that one went flying over the fence, while the other two had softer landings in the flower bed in our front yard.

Well, I pulled in the driveway, softly praying, "Please, no bunnies; please no bunnies," because the thought of blind, hairless babies being outside defenseless all day - and still alive - was more than I wanted to deal with. I figured that I couldn't keep them alive, and that they were going to die eventually no matter what I did, so I was essentially praying all day that they would have a quick and painless death. But no.

Coming upon the front steps, there he (or she; I haven't checked) was: the last surviving bunny. Oh, crud! I thought. Now what?

I confess that I left him there (Barney was going nuts by the front door and I had an armload of groceries) and called One Ring. She suggested that I call Barney's vet and ask them. I did, and they promptly told me that the bunny was doomed and that nothing could be done to save him (her). Too young, they said. I just collapsed on the couch at that point and became a pathetic lump, angry at Barney and wishing I could do something to keep it comfortable.

Well, One Ring came home and took control. One look at the bunny and she went into action, setting up an artificial nest, calling the local wildlife rescue society, and preparing a mixture of Gatoraide and water. Several times last night she fed the little guy (or girl), and this morning he (or she) is alive and resting comfortably (at least it looks that way).

So the plan now is that she's going to call the wildlife rescue group (who will get a link and donations if they're very nice and helpful to us!) and set up a time for me to bring the bunny in. I'm only working a 3/4 day today, so that should give me enough time to head home, feed and take the bunny north of Nashville to the site.

One Ring also wants me to take some pictures of the critter and post them here. So I'll do that tonight.

This has been a truly bizarre situation, and as soon as things calm down maybe I'll be able to reflect on them. Not to say that this is the reason these events happened, but it's helped me to put some things into perspective.

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