Bunnies in the Mire

Saturday morning: Neighbor Tom shows me that he has 4 baby bunnies trapped in his window well. Somehow I assume responsibility for the wellbeing and rescue of these little ones. We capture two of them with Megan's butterfly net but the other two hop down a sump pump drain out of fear. This leads to many questions from my animal-loving children. "Are they going to DIE mama?"  "Can we lower a carrot down there so they won't be hungry?' "What will happen if they can't get out, mom?" "Can we google it?" "Can we look for a youtube video and find out how to save them?"

I was doubtful that any of these suggestions would bear fruit. Instead we set up a watch to see if we could catch either of them up in the well. That way we would know that they could come up the sump pump drain on their own. To our great relief, we eventually did see them out of the drain....only to jump back down if they saw us move towards them. 

So naturally we rigged up a trap of sorts using a flattened cardboard box and a mop handle. All that was left was for someone to lay ever so still, holding the other end of the mop and wait for the bunny/bunnies to emerge. Then they would quickly tip the cardboard onto the top of the drain and block the escape route. We then catch them with our trusty butterfly net and all would be right with the world. No dead bunnies on our watch.

This would have been the perfect plan if someone had been willing to spend several hours laying completely motionless on their belly outside of Tom's window well. There were no volunteers.

We decided to take care of the two bunnies we already had and check on the other two the next morning. Let's call it Plan B.

Sunday Morning: Mark and I are awakened by the sound of thunder. We had left the two captives in a plastic tote under the Roses of Sharon in the front yard. Drowned bunnies aren't much better that starved bunnies, so we ran out to bring them in and check on the two in the window well. 

We discovered that one bunny had escaped the tote during the night by climbing up a lily stem we placed in there for food. (We are pretty sure they love the lilies....they feast on ours nightly). We were hopeful that he hopped away safely and is happily enjoying its freedom in the wild. 

When we checked on the drain-dwellers, we found that they had indeed emerged in the night and the wind had blown over the box and they couldn't get back down. Eureka! We caught them in short order and put them with the other guy and brought them all in to the house. The kids were still asleep and I didn't want to set them free until they saw them so I placed a dishcloth over the top and duct taped it down. 

Sunday afternoon: I told the kids that "under no circumstances" were they to touch or handle the bunnies. They were not to make loud noises or jostle the tote. We should minimize our contact so they can be released with very little interference from humans. 

So naturally we ended up holding them like babies, petting their sweet little ears, removing several ticks and giving them names. 

Eventually it was time to say goodbye to Tick Tock (that one had a HUGE tick on it's chin...its itty bitty pwecious chin), Chipmunk and Racing Stripes.

We started to walk down the street to release them in the "woods" behind our house, but we ran into all the neighbors and it turned into a large farewell parade.

When the goodbyes were said and we made sure they weren't out in the open, tempting hawks to swoop down for an appetizer, we wandered back and visited with the neighbors in the cul de sac. Which turned into several hours of guitar playing, chatting and bike riding.

I think we succeeded in two things: (neither of which would include saving bunny lives)

1) We got to know our neighbors better and had a lovely evening.

2) We simultaneously confused the neighbor kids and our own kids about our "we can't play on Sunday" rule.

Don't worry. I'm confused too.