While my wife and I visited Ocean Beach Pet Supply, a woman and her daughter brought in a kitten. The woman claimed some guy driving by handed it to her, told her he found it […]
Tag: animals
Coon with a View
I am getting a late start this morning. Our Maine Coon, Kuma, climbed his first tree today and couldn’t get down. A young woman walking her dog helped our boy reach the ground. Big as […]
Tweet If You See a Tooting Llama
Mark Arm’s Tumblr post—photo of a Central Park animal—reminds me of a story. Summer 1980, I had just turned 21 and lived in a group house on New York’s Upper West Side. The Democratic National Convention convened at Madison Square Garden for about four days of mayhem.
Long May You Run
I continue to mourn our two rabbits, which went to a new home on Sunday. We can’t take either of them with us to California. 🙁 I’ve been thinking about Daisy and her romps around the backyard; how happy she would be. For some reason, I find Neil Young’s “Long May You Run” coming to mind when I think of the bunny.
My basement office is a desolate place now, and the backyard is a field of dread. Something about the rabbits—and their simple tranquility—represents a lifestyle lived in this house. Their departure has taken away part of our home. I loathe coming down into the basement to work now. I count the remaining days to our departure. We can’t leave this place soon enough.
Bye Bye Bunnies
Today we sent our two beloved bunnies, Daisy and Mayflower, to a new home. I’ve referred to them on this Weblog as Bun Bun and Little Bun, respectively. Daisy was hardest for me to let go. She and I shared my basement office for more then four years. She was a delightful companion.
For weeks, we had been looking for a home but with no success. Last Monday, my wife posted to three home school lists, with no promising response from anyone. The week ahead would have been one of desperation, with the rabbits going to an animal shelter on Saturday if they had no takers. We didn’t want to put them in a shelter.
Daisy Days
Today was another cleaning day, as we prepare to move to another city. I took Daisy out in the backyard to chomp on clover. For years on this blog, I referred to her as Bun […]
The Fox and the Hares
Well, you know you’ve been out of town and out of touch, when there are 5,523 new posts to read via RSS. Oh my! Among them: Jean McDermott has an update on the feral rabbit hunt, lest the vermin—ah, cute furballs—defoliate Alaska. I blogged about part one of her bunny adventure the day before her most recent update. How’s that for timing?
So, writes Jean: “I successfully caught six baby rabbits over Memorial Day weekend. Three black ones, two gray ones, and a tortoise color fawnish one. Let me tell you, baby bunnies are extremely cute”. But she resisted petting the lot, to avoid terrifying them to death. However, the cuteness overwhelmed the folks over at animal control.
Bunny Post Mortem
Bubba’s demise may have been caused by contact with a cat. In my last post, I identified bacteria as one possible cause for the baby bunny’s death.
On Saturday night, hours after adopting Bubba, I sent an e-mail to Second Chance Wildlife Center, which is where we would have taken the bunny for care. Last night, Chris from Second Chance e-mailed advice about Bubba. Apparently, she didn’t know that I had called earlier in the day. With her permission, here is the e-mail, which contains information potentially useful to other people with distressed, wild baby bunnies.
Burying Bubba
Bubba’s little life ended this morning. We awoke to find the orphaned bunny cold and listless. My daughter held Bubba to warm it, while I phoned the local animal rehabilitator. She advised to immediately bring Bubba in for care. But the bunny died before we could even leave the house. We later wrapped Bubba in a cloth and buried it in the backyard. May the bunny rest in peace.
Bubba’s demise could have come from a number of different factors or a combination of them. I’d like to list some of them and offer advice for anyone coming across a seemingly abandoned bunny (in our case, we didn’t find Bubba).
Bubba
This morning I got a delightful call at 10:03. Penn Camera had received, finally, my 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 G ED-IF AF-S VR DX Zoom-Nikkor lens. I’ve been waiting for this lens since getting the Nikon D200. This evening I carried the lens out on a bunny watch. Some evenings, my wife, daughter and I watch the furballs frolic in the neighborhood across the main street.
We bumped into two ladies (they looked like a couple) trying to find a home for an abandoned bunny. One of the ladies carried the kitten, she called Bubba, cupped in her hand. His story: Yesterday, the ladies’ cat brought home the baby bunny, apparently without injury. The women fed Bubba diluted Half `n Half by way of eye dropper. Last night, after seeing that the animal was OK, the women put the baby out in their yard. But they were uncertain of the nest’s location. Today, their neighbor found the baby on his lawn while mowing.
Bun Bun Suns
Washington is cooler this Sunday than the last. But a little chill isn’t stopping Spring, or Bun Bun (not her real name) getting out for a run.
Bun Bun will be three years old this year. We bought her on an August day from the Animal Exchange in Rockville, Md. The store was a pitstop to pick up pet supplies before purchasing a bunny from the Montgomery County Fair. My daughter fell in love with this lone bunny at the store. She was big, perhaps six months old, and a risk. Young kittens are easier to train and to hold.
Bye, Bye, Ruffy
Tonight our local veterinarian took Ruffalo, the rabbit we unexpectedly inherited. Ruffy is a cute bunny, friendly and energetic. He needed a better home than we could provide. If we didn’t have two rabbits already, he would have stayed with us.
I am sad to see Ruffy go. He was part of our family. But he needs a better family. The vet deeply loves animals, and I am confident she will find him a home. Yesterday, she sent out an e-mail to people she knows at National Institutes of Health (I provided photos). Several people asked about taking Ruffy. The vet may even keep him. She reminisced about the days when an Angora bunny hoped around the office and people would come by just to gawk at her.