Wednesday, July 19, 2006

All in a day's work!

The first weekend of June 0ur little family was preparing for a trip. We were going to Provo, Utah for my hubby's parents' 30th wedding anniversary. It was just a short weekend trip but anyone who has traveled with children know that packing for a weekend trip might as well be the same as packing for a whole week or longer. We got the kids to bed and my hubby and I began to pack up the car. We made numerous trips from the house through the garage out to the car. Finally the car was packed but I couldn't go to sleep yet.

I stayed up and fixed the kids' necklaces and bracelets. They needed to be restrung. I watched the 10 O'Clock news, then Letterman. (I'm a Letterman fan over Leno ANY day!) The restringing of beads wasn't going as quickly as I would have liked and Letterman ended. Then the Late, LATE show with Craig Ferguson came on. I don't usually stay up late enough to watch him but I have caught it a couple of times and I'd say he's pretty funny.

As I'm sitting on the floor stringing intricate beads and watching tv I heard a small rustle come from the garage door. The door was open just a crack for the evaporative cooler. I looked over and saw this small brown tuft scurry across the floor. I didn't know what it was at first and my imagination got the best of me. Was it a mouse? We don't have mice in our house! I looked again just in time to see it move. It was a baby bunny! Oh it was such a cute baby bunny! I could tell it was scared out of its wits. It had ventured into the garage while we were packing the car and then got trapped inside. I tried to capture the little bunny so I could put him back outside but he was super fast. He ran down the hallway and right into my son's room. (My daughter's crib had been moved into the other room so they could go to sleep at the same time). The little ball of fluff scurried into the closet. I had to turn on the bedroom light in order to find it and finally shooed it into a box. I walked out the front door and let him loose in the flower bed. I was so glad I had stayed up late because if I hadn't he might have stayed trapped in the garage the whole weekend and might have died and then I would have been really sad.

When we came back from Provo sunday evening I went out to the backyard to check on my daylilly seedlings. To my utmost shock and horror a bunny had been killed in my backyard most likely by a cat. All that remained was a hindleg! I almost cried right there on the spot. I didn't want the kids to see it so I quickly ran inside and got a plastic bag, picked up the leg and threw it over the wall into the arroyo. Only a week before we had seen 4 different rabbits in our front or backyard. For the next couple of weeks I hadn't seen any! They were all scared of ending up dinner for a neighbor cat like their friend.

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Saturday July 15th.
I woke up, and went in to the bathroom. As I was sitting there I looked out the window into our backyard. Right there by our backdoor was another cottontail. He was the original visitor. I could tell because he favors his left hind leg. He had an injury that he's still trying to heal from. I hurried into the living room to tell my husband. Just then he hopped past the main sliding glass door by the dining room. Our whole family was excited to see him jump into the flowerbed.

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This morning.
7:25am. I woke with a start, I thought I heard my daughter wake up. I sat there in bed for a moment trying to figure out if she was a wake and I needed to get up or if I could doze for a few more minutes. I looked out the window to see an orange cat in my yard. He was jumping around in the mint like he was trying to catch something. I sat amused by it's antics and wondered what it was trying to catch. My first thought was a lizard. The cat must have found a lizard. Just then I saw a little animal jump out of the mint bush. It definitely wasn't a lizard, my next thought was a toad. We've seen toads frequent our flowerbeds from time to time. The cat jumped into the grass right behind the little animal and thats when I realized that it wasn't a toad but the little baby bunny I had saved almost 2 months earlier.

I jumped out of bed and ran out the door yelling "Don't you DARE eat that bunny!" As soon as I had opened the door the cat jumped the wall into the neighbor's yard that happened to be the home of two big dogs! And the frightened little bunny jumped back into the mint. He was so scared he just hid in a corner which made it easy to catch. I felt so bad for him, he just sat there in my hand scared to death. I gently stroked his ever so soft fur and brought him inside. I immediately called my husband and told him of the daring rescue. He was shocked and surprised that the little creature was sitting so calmly in the palm of my hand. We didn't know what to do with him though. If I set him free he would just fall prey to some other cat that wanted to eat him for dinner. Just then my kids wandered out of their rooms sleepy-eyed. Quickly my daughter saw the cute snuggly little ball of fur in my hand and began to make cutesy noises at it. That caught the attention of my son who then began to ask many, many questions. We put the little bunny in a box and W set to work to pick grass for the bunny's breakfast.

I knew we couldn't keep the little bunny in a cardboard box but I still worried about setting him free into the backyard where there could be lurking cats. I put my mind to work and came up with a plan. I got a laundry basket from the house, took it and the box with the bunny outside and let the bunny go into the grass. The laundry basket was turned upside down to protect the bunny but so it could be in the lawn. He immediately curled up and went to sleep, the poor little thing. I know he can't stay there forever, eventually I'll have to let him go, but I just worry about the poor little guy. There are so many big mean cats ready to jump on him when he isn't expecting it. My kids have gone out to check on the bunny numerous times already this morning. Just to make sure he's still okay under the laundry basket. And to be honest I have too.

Posted by ABQ Mom :: 7/19/2006 08:13:00 AM :: 5 Comments:

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