The great baby bunny incident of 2012

[Love Life]

There I was larger than life. I was sitting in the yard watching the kids play and then I hear it. "BUNNY!!!!" is squealed out simultaneously by two little girls. I think "Aw heck. They've spotted a jack. No big deal. Then I see this little bump moving across the yard followed by two very excited little girls.

It was a baby bunny. A baby jackrabbit to be precise. I figure I would let the girls chase it and tire themselves out, but at the same time I was coming to this decision the 80 pound boxer (whose leash was wrapped around my chair leg) sees the bunny and decides to give chase.

Not good. The chair tips backwards and marshmellows and doctor pepper fly though the air (along with quite a few choice words). My wife decides to help by letting out a loud laugh. Thanks honey... Anywho I can't take the time to clean myself up. I am instantly up and moving trying to catch the huge hurtling streak known as my dog from catching the bunny and killing it in front of the girls. Its a dead race. The dog against the bunny and me against the dog. Luckily the bunny dips under a bush (which has thorns by the way), but unluckily the big brown streak also heads for the bush.

She dives in and I dive in immediately after her (that is how I now know the bush had thorns). Luckily my face was uninjured, but I digress. I grab the hippo known as my dog, drag her out, and put her in a headlock to allow the bunny to escape.

Bunny runs a bit and just stops. It doesn't move. I am afraid the dog got it and the girls are closing in fast. I run up to it and see it is breathing, but it is so scared it doesn't know what to do. I don't know what to do. I pick him up and put him in a box until I can get the dog in. I wanted to keep the bunny as a pet, but the wife says no. Little bunny was released after he calmed down with a couple of carrots to hopefully help him out.

How is everybody elses evening going?

[quilbilly]

I always thought that baby jacks are too high strung and fragile to be confined. Cottontails are a little better. A flemish giant might be better for the kids and maybe get along better with the dog. It is nice to hear about them and for me to see them since they are gone in the parts of the Central washington desert I frequent. Mt. St. Helens ash wiped them out and they never came back.

[Love Life]

I definately wanted to keep it, but common sense (my wife) prevailed. How dare she bring up the following concerns:

Disease
Bugs
Wild animal
Need to buy a cage
Need to buy food

I swear she takes away all my fun sometimes, but I wouldn't trade her for the world.

[Beagler]

It will be alright as long as nothing eats it. The neighbors give me baby bunnies a couple times a year when they find them. Some are to small and the others the size you have get released in to the heavy brush in the back. Alot of them survive. That gives my beagles something to chase in the off season.

[nvbirdman]

My dog frequently brings baby jacks home. She once brought me a full grown cottontail. She never kills them, she is just bringing food to me since I give her food every day. One day when I was going to walk down to the mailbox (1/2 mile round trip) she had just caught a quail and she proudly carried it in her mouth all the way to the mailbox and back.

[Oreo]

A guy on a local board hand raised one of those last year, or so. Turns out, rabits are easy to raise and take to a litter pan just like cats.

[DLCTEX]

The only Jackrabbit I ever tried to raise constantly beat it's nose against the cage wire wanting out. I finally freed it to save it's nose.

[Blammer]

Great story!

Our neighbor has a field he mow's each spring for the hay. Occasionally he tussles up a bunny nest and one time about 5 young cotton tails were scattered about the place. The kids caught two or three of them, petted them an then sent them on thier way.

We could have easily kept and raised them in our out door 'chicken' coop 'animal shelter outside.

We have chickens and two dogs now so that's out if it happens again.

[warpspeed]

That is a great story.

If that happened here, it would be the wife & kids wanting to keep it and me being the voice of reason.

[41 mag fan]

AWWWW CUTE!! Lifes to short to worry about the what ifs.......
Kids are cute, and so is the baby bunny.
There comes a time in a persons life, when you begin to lovelife...sorry user name.....
Lifes so short, I am at my cross roads....
i've got a sparrows nest in my grill cover sitting in the chair, with 4 eggs.
I check it every day. I'll buy a new cover before i disturb it.....
Enjoy the kids joy, enjoy the sight of enthusiasm they have at the bunny.
Love life...sorry user name....because like me, before you know it, it'll be gone in a flash

[Love Life]

AWWWW CUTE!! Lifes to short to worry about the what ifs.......
Kids are cute, and so is the baby bunny.
There comes a time in a persons life, when you begin to lovelife...sorry user name.....
Lifes so short, I am at my cross roads....
i've got a sparrows nest in my grill cover sitting in the chair, with 4 eggs.
I check it every day. I'll buy a new cover before i disturb it.....
Enjoy the kids joy, enjoy the sight of enthusiasm they have at the bunny.
Love life...sorry user name....because like me, before you know it, it'll be gone in a flash

You hit the nail on the head. That is how I chose my screen name when I joined. I had finally learned to slow down and enjoy the little things. That continues to this day. It's funny how these moments are there and gone in a flash, but the memory is there forever.

[fryboy]

i call them kodak moments and am grateful to have the ummm mental film to catch a few now and again , it's even rarer when i find the words to share one ( perhaps i should state words to adequately describe and share such moments , btw ? thanx for that ! )

[PanaDP]

That isn't at all what I thought you were going to tell a story about. When I was a teenager one of my regular chores was mowing our yard which was pretty large. It was around 4 acres. I had a riding mower so it was really just a matter of putting headphones on, grabbing some water and sitting on the thing for a while. Usually once every spring when the grass would grow a lot during a week I would be mowing along and it would sound like I hit a stick and the mower would spit out some fluff. Poor little baby bunnies were taught to stay put when Mom's away and, when I couldn't see them in the tall grass, would sometimes get mowed. :(

[41 mag fan]

You hit the nail on the head. That is how I chose my screen name when I joined. I had finally learned to slow down and enjoy the little things. That continues to this day. It's funny how these moments are there and gone in a flash, but the memory is there forever.

You're exactly right there. I've wished many times, we had our kids when I was older. Back then I was so worried about money and providing, I didn't get or take the opportunity to sit back and enjoy the things I enjoy now.
But I missed alot, and the kids are grown now and gone.
But we got an ace up our sleeve.
We're just sitting back waiting on grandkids.
I feel sorry for my kids when they have grandkids and they come to our house!!
But what I miss and missed on our kids, I'll be able to enjoy with my grandkids

[Echo]

We lived on base @ Tinker AFB, and there was an empty field behind us, with a rise that the kids could climb and watch for funnel clouds. The base engineers had plowed some furrows on the other side of the rise, and residents could be allocated a furrow to raise truck, if they chose. We had a beagle (Ahab) that would exercise the bunnies occasionally, when he got loose. One time I heard him yelling, and went up there to check him out, and recover him. He was standing there, all excited, because he had chased, and could smell a bunny, but didn't know where he was. Well - the baby bunny was right between his front legs!
I ran over and swooped Ahab up before he got wise, and carried him back to the house so the bunny could go about it's business.

[beagle]

Was driving to town the other day and I have to pass this old stone quarry. As I was passing it, here's comes a baby bunny out of the quarry with a mink hot on his trail. I braked and it disrupted the chase but resumed after I passed. Looked like the bunny was holding his own and I wish him luck./beagle

[AkMike]

This is my grandson with his first bunny encounter. ( The rabbit survived)

[41 mag fan]

This is my grandson with his first bunny encounter. ( The rabbit survived)


That poor Californian rabbit looks like it's getting the poop squeezed out of it!!!

Cute pic tho!

[DLCTEX]

At a boy's home I worked for the pasture was mowed for hay and some boys found a nest of small rabbits. A couple of other boys wanted to find some of their own and went reaching into holes in the creek bank to feel for rabbits. The furry critter that they encountered was a Muskrat that took a nip out of a finger.

[1bluehorse]

You hit the nail on the head. That is how I chose my screen name when I joined. I had finally learned to slow down and enjoy the little things. That continues to this day. It's funny how these moments are there and gone in a flash, but the memory is there forever.

Very good point there. I retired 5 years ago and have gotten so good at that "slowing down to enjoy things" part that most times you can barely see me movin....:groner:

P.S. I'm not so sure about that memory part...

[wallenba]

My old pooch Bud could run down the adults when he was young. First a loud scream, and I knew he had another. By the time I got out there, he would have already eaten the head. They do that I guess. On the other hand he'd find babies huddled behind the a/c condenser and be confused as to what to do next. If they did not flee he had no follow through instinct. My niece would care for them. Eight, all told over the years. Keeping wild life in Michigan is illegal though.
My other dog Lola, could care less about them, she just ignored them.

[wallenba]

AWWWW CUTE!! Lifes to short to worry about the what ifs.......
Kids are cute, and so is the baby bunny.
There comes a time in a persons life, when you begin to lovelife...sorry user name.....
Lifes so short, I am at my cross roads....
i've got a sparrows nest in my grill cover sitting in the chair, with 4 eggs.
I check it every day. I'll buy a new cover before i disturb it.....
Enjoy the kids joy, enjoy the sight of enthusiasm they have at the bunny.
Love life...sorry user name....because like me, before you know it, it'll be gone in a flash

My sister had to put a new mailbox out every year as sparrows would find it and nest. Being artsy she painted a nesting bird scene on it, with 'special delivery' painted under it.
She also had a one way mirror mounted in the back of a bird house, and mounted that in the kitchen window, and blocked off the rest of the glass. Could check on them anytime, her kids loved it.

[geargnasher]

I've drug home more than one destitute animal, my poor wife has had to take in everything from house wren chicks to baby mice. She raised an abandoned pinkie field mouse to adulthood and we just kept her in an aquarium until she lived out her short little life, about two years. We always say "If it makes you happy, keep it". The burden is usually fairly small, the only decision involves what's best for the critter. Bunnies can go either way in captivity, sometimes they simply die of fright, or won't eat or drink even if weaned. Sometimes they take to captivity just fine, you never know.

Gear

[AkMike]

That poor Californian rabbit looks like it's getting the poop squeezed out of it!!!

Cute pic tho!

Uh.. That'a a Ukrainian bunny not a Kommifornia bunny.