Ok. Hana's a dog and, therefore, inclined to do doggie things, such as eyeing small mammals and birds like one of her hapless squeaky toys. Not quite as harmless as it sounds, especially if you know what she actually does to her squeaky toys. I am reluctantly squeamish to admit that in her lifetime, she's killed one squirrel, two gophers, and two house finches. The squirrel-gophercide episodes I can live with, but the house finch thing still befuddles me. Hana's prowess in bird hunting is formidably scary - more feline than canine, so thank goodness that her interest in birdies has waned considerably since the last "incident."
Hana is pretty much under constant supervision except when she's out in the dog run doing her duty, etc., etc. So what could go wrong in an enclosed dog run? Well, enter the scene a stupendously stupid mother rabbit. Not being judgmental here, but what kind of wild leporid would build her freaking nest in a DOG RUN of all places. You'd think that the tell-tale scent of doggie poop & urine would have been a major deterrent. Last Friday night, around 9:30pm, we noticed that Hana was MIA and so I went down to the dog run to see if she was hanging out there. Let me tell you, but then maybe I shouldn't: I found Hana behind a clump of geraniums along the wall looking super alert, tail wagging, and "guilty" at the same time when she saw me at the door - that's code for "Mom, I know I did something bad, but I couldn't help myself and, and I don't know why, but I'm totally beside myself with inexplicable excitement." Foregoing the unnecessary details, the final body count of baby rabbits in the dog run was eight. She found the nest under the geraniums and I'm just surprised that she hadn't noticed them earlier. The "happy" ending to this otherwise morbid and morose story is that we found two babies who had escaped their siblings' fate. Needless to say, Hana was banned from her own dog run until we could figure out how to save these little guys. After some cursory research on the web, I felt oddly relieved to find that there were tons of blogs, websites, and chats galore along the lines of "HELP! MY DOG/CAT ATTACKED A NEST OF BABY BUNNIES." Apparently, rabbits are not the brightest bulbs in the pantheon of wild critters. So, Hana is somewhat vindicated. Somewhat, being the operative word.
We rebuilt the nest with some barley hay and put the one baby we caught back into it, hoping that mom would return to nurse them. The second baby had initially disappeared under the shrubbage, but found its way back to the nest by the next morning. We wanted so badly to name them. But, they were never ours to keep, just to rescue.
A few interesting factoids about wild bunnies:
1) Mother rabbit only comes to the nest 2-3 times a day (usually early morning and dusk) to nurse her babies for 5-10 minutes (rabbit's milk is extremely rich & loaded with nutrients). They don't sit on the nest like birds would, to avoid attracting predators. OBVIOUSLY, that concept doesn't work too well if you build your nest in a dog run, for God's sake...
2)Unless mother rabbit is dead, always, always, put the babies back into the nest. Even if you handle the babies, mom won't be detracted by the human scent.
3)In about 4 weeks, when they reach 4-5", eyes are open, ears away from the head, and the little white stripe on their foreheads diminished, baby bunnies are ready to leave the nest. Thank the deuces that these babies looked on the verge of fledging, so to speak. By this morning, both babies were gone. We're happy and sad. Anyhoo, we just started letting Hana back into the dog run, but only with one of us there to watch her. We'll keep this up for the next few days until we're absolutely sure the babies are not coming back. Sniff. May they live long and prosper. As long as they don't eat anything growing in my garden.
Some informative websites about rescuing baby bunnies:
http://www.rabbit.org/faq/sections/orphan.html
http://www.mybunny.org/info/newborn.htm
http://www.indianahrs.org/rabbit-care/wild-rabbits.aspx
Hana is pretty much under constant supervision except when she's out in the dog run doing her duty, etc., etc. So what could go wrong in an enclosed dog run? Well, enter the scene a stupendously stupid mother rabbit. Not being judgmental here, but what kind of wild leporid would build her freaking nest in a DOG RUN of all places. You'd think that the tell-tale scent of doggie poop & urine would have been a major deterrent. Last Friday night, around 9:30pm, we noticed that Hana was MIA and so I went down to the dog run to see if she was hanging out there. Let me tell you, but then maybe I shouldn't: I found Hana behind a clump of geraniums along the wall looking super alert, tail wagging, and "guilty" at the same time when she saw me at the door - that's code for "Mom, I know I did something bad, but I couldn't help myself and, and I don't know why, but I'm totally beside myself with inexplicable excitement." Foregoing the unnecessary details, the final body count of baby rabbits in the dog run was eight. She found the nest under the geraniums and I'm just surprised that she hadn't noticed them earlier. The "happy" ending to this otherwise morbid and morose story is that we found two babies who had escaped their siblings' fate. Needless to say, Hana was banned from her own dog run until we could figure out how to save these little guys. After some cursory research on the web, I felt oddly relieved to find that there were tons of blogs, websites, and chats galore along the lines of "HELP! MY DOG/CAT ATTACKED A NEST OF BABY BUNNIES." Apparently, rabbits are not the brightest bulbs in the pantheon of wild critters. So, Hana is somewhat vindicated. Somewhat, being the operative word.
We rebuilt the nest with some barley hay and put the one baby we caught back into it, hoping that mom would return to nurse them. The second baby had initially disappeared under the shrubbage, but found its way back to the nest by the next morning. We wanted so badly to name them. But, they were never ours to keep, just to rescue.
A few interesting factoids about wild bunnies:
1) Mother rabbit only comes to the nest 2-3 times a day (usually early morning and dusk) to nurse her babies for 5-10 minutes (rabbit's milk is extremely rich & loaded with nutrients). They don't sit on the nest like birds would, to avoid attracting predators. OBVIOUSLY, that concept doesn't work too well if you build your nest in a dog run, for God's sake...
2)Unless mother rabbit is dead, always, always, put the babies back into the nest. Even if you handle the babies, mom won't be detracted by the human scent.
3)In about 4 weeks, when they reach 4-5", eyes are open, ears away from the head, and the little white stripe on their foreheads diminished, baby bunnies are ready to leave the nest. Thank the deuces that these babies looked on the verge of fledging, so to speak. By this morning, both babies were gone. We're happy and sad. Anyhoo, we just started letting Hana back into the dog run, but only with one of us there to watch her. We'll keep this up for the next few days until we're absolutely sure the babies are not coming back. Sniff. May they live long and prosper. As long as they don't eat anything growing in my garden.
Some informative websites about rescuing baby bunnies:
http://www.rabbit.org/faq/sections/orphan.html
http://www.mybunny.org/info/newborn.htm
http://www.indianahrs.org/rabbit-care/wild-rabbits.aspx
4/16/11
Back in the reconstructed nest.
