The Homeless Easter Bunny Family
by Laura Corbier
One lazy afternoon I was driving into the nearest town to do some grocery shopping. I noticed three domestic bunnies huddled under a cedar tree at the edge of the road in someone’s yard. Typical of me to notice something amiss. I hate seeing rabbits just loose like that. They are so easily scared I doubt they could navigate the traffic. I tried to put them out of my mind, I had three pet rabbits at home to be concerned about. I did mention seeing the three bunnies to Dave my husband later that night when we spoke on the phone.
That weekend when Dave came home from trucking all week, we went to town again. It didn’t take long for him to ask where I had seen the bunnies. So when we drove past there on our way home, we saw only two rabbits, the third had been killed on the road a little further down. Dave demanded I pull over so he could go talk to the owner. Dave is generally an easy going guy, but this outraged him! He went right up to the house to speak to the man who owned the house. I watched them talk for a few minutes then the man went into his garage and Dave returned to the car.
When he came back, he informed me we were taking the two surviving bunnies. The man came out with a fishing net to catch the now ferial rabbits. I was amazed they managed to catch them. Both were quite frightened and would not tolerate being handled. Dave stuffed the two scrawny and dirty rabbits into our trunk and I just prayed they’d survive the stress. On the way home he filled me on their history and what led them to being homeless under a cedar tree.
A year and a half earlier, three cute little baby bunnies were purchased as Easter gifts for the little two legged kids. The three bunnies lived in the house until that fall. Apparently they were not too friendly and the kids were bored so the bunnies were sent to an Uncle’s barn for the winter. The one female did have at least one litter of kits, maybe two, but the babies didn’t survive, why I don’t know. So the following spring the three rabbits were let loose on the lawn for the summer. When Dave informed him that his three rabbits were now only two, the man was more than happy for Dave to take them off his hands.
We got these wild bunnies home in one piece and still alive to my amazement. We put them up on our back deck which had a bunny proof fence already installed. So they stayed there loose for a few days until Dave built them an outside hutch. Two white rabbits were drastically underweight and very ragged looking. Stress was the only reason we could catch them at all for they were almost completely wild. I managed to get them into the vet for closer examination that same weekend. So our new additions were one boy, white with grey smatterings and a girl, white with grey on only one side. And to top it off, the female was pregnant with three or four kits.
Great, I was already out of my mind trying to figure out how we were going to mange two more on top of the three we already had. It’s not like they’d all get along like one happy bunny family. For now the two new ones would have to live on the deck separate from my other three until I could figure something out. The vet also informed me I’d have to separate the male and female before she had the babies or he’d probably end up killing the kits which would be coming in about three weeks. Great, more good news. Poor Dave got to building right away with the family hutch and the bachelor pad. We settled on naming them Cheeks and Gracie. We managed to get Cheeks neutered right away, but obviously Gracie would have to wait.
Cheeks was a very compact shaped bunny with a round head and shorter ears. He was timid, but we could see he had a gentle nature. I was in love with him instantly. Gracie on the other hand was very long and shapely like a gangly super model. She had icy blue eyes and a fiery nature. For some time I found her unattractive, but I felt compassion for her and would go to all lengths to help her. We could see these two were quite bonded. Cheeks was very sweet, but fearful on his own. I wasn’t sure he’d take to being a bachelor once the babies would come. We separated them a few weeks later just to be safe. Cheeks was not happy about this arrangement.
Three weeks later I came home to Gracie with a mouth full of straw, blood smeared all over her face and her belly plucked of half her fur. She had already delivered two babies and was now working on building her nest. I had already put in her hutch a beer box with a side hole and filled with straw for her to make a nest in, a few days earlier. I watched her for hours expecting her to deliver at least one more baby, maybe two, but they never came. Being a fretful Grandmother, I called the vet to give them an update. I was worried that there might be something wrong. As it ended up, Gracie’s poor physical condition caused her body to absorb two of the fetuses because it could only properly form two babies.
It was all I could do not to hound her too much. I really wanted to see those babies. I looked into the nest to see two naked little babies, one all pink, the other pink and grey. The pink one was small and skinny, the other was large and plump. I watched from afar for the most part, but checked the little one a couple times a day. Poor Cheeks was out of his mind, he wanted back in with his Girl Gracie and those new kids. I agonized for him for days, there was no consoling him. I would allow Cheeks and Gracie to run together on the deck for an hour, but I made up my mind, when the kids were big enough to venture out of the nest at the age of 12 days or so, I’d see if Cheeks could be in with them without causing a problem.
It ended up that Cheeks did move back in with Gracie and the kids. To my amazement I found that Cheeks would get in the nest and snuggle with the babies between nursing, and when Gracie would nurse them, he’d clean their bums! I swear if he would have nursed those babies he could have. Cheeks was very gentle and affectionate with the little ones. They would climb all over him and he loved it. Gracie on the other hand would sit up on the third level to be out of the action and would only go on the main floor to eat, drink and nurse the babies.
Gracie ended up nursing the kids almost two months. At one point I thought I’d have to make the decision of weaning them for her, but she fed them up good before closing the bar. They made such a cute little bunny family. I was still pretty stressed about what I’d do with everyone. I had done some reading on the internet and discovered that baby bunnies often end up a snake food. Well that ended any ideas of putting the kids up for adoption. We’d just have to manage some how.
After Gracie was done with her weaning we got her spayed. I think it was some time early in November we got the Outerhausen’s (affectionate name for the whole family) moved into our spare bedroom upstairs and began planning for the spaying and neutering of the kids, Jazzie and Erie in the New Year. Welcome home.
The bunny family
Tags: discarded, easter rabbit
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