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 […]
Tag: animals
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.
More Ruffalo
I am out on the West Coast this week for business. Back home, my wife is trying to figure out what to do with Ruffalo. He’s one of the friendliest, gentlest bunnies I’ve seen. But […]
Ruffalo Rabbit
We were asked to care for a bunny for a week. Now we’ve been asked to keep the rabbit, whose name is Ruffalo. He’s a dwarf bunny and much cuter in life than the scowl […]
Little Bun Runs
Unseasonably warm weather ended today, but not before the thermometer reached 23 degrees Celsius. On Sunday, with temperature about as high, my daughter took Little Bun (not the rabbit’s real name) out into the backyard.
Bun Bun (also a rabbit pseudonym) shares my basement office and gets frequent runs `round the backyard. She can hop—supervised, of course—out the open sliding glass door. Little Bun lives in my daughter’s bedroom, without access to the outside.
Mittens
Some days, people give me hope. About an hour ago, my wife rapped on my office door—sliding glass that goes from the basement into the backyard—and said, “Come here. There’s something I’ve got to show you”. Her body language suggested more, so I responded to the urgency.
A car had hit one of several feral cats that maraud the neighborhood. I had chased this animal, grey with white paws (mittens), out of the backyard whenever it stalked the wild squirrels. Now, the animal lay prone in the street, panting and meowing.
Backyard Bunny
As mentioned yesterday, I returned to using a PowerBook, the same one let go just a few months ago. One reason the temporary switch was so dumb: Somehow when backing up the contents some error occurred that I missed. The “2005” folder containing all pictures taken this year didn’t copy. So, when wiping the PowerBook’s hard drive, I inadvertently deleted thousands of irreplaceable photos, the majority taken with a Nikon D70. Bummed is too weak a word to describe my reaction.