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Past Success StoriesBUNNY RESCUE – Summer 2005 These 3 bunnies were left orphans when their mother got hit by a car on a busy street in Liberty, OH. The mother had dug her burrow on the medium strip close to the road so we were afraid they would go out onto the busy traffic and get killed. Since my mom does not work and is home all the time, she volunteered to try to save these bunnies. We don’t know how long they were orphaned but they were already very dehydrated from being in the hot sun. We knew they’d have to be fed and given milk every couple hours if they were going to survive so my mom was the best candidate for the job. The first day or two they would not take any milk from the bottle but we figured they were probably still traumatized from us handling them and from the ride to her house and being put into the enclosed cage that was their temporary home. We bought a small hamster cage and a small straw-like “hut” for them to go into to feel safe. We put rabbit bedding down on the floor of the cage so they would be comfortable. They really made a mess from running back and forth when we had to catch them to feed them. 
After a few days, every hour, trying to get them to drink the cat’s milk we got from the petstore, she finally got them to start drinking the bottled milk. A few days after that she put out lettuce and water in a bowl and they started eating and drinking on their own. When they got a little bigger, we had to move their home from the cage to a baby playpen but we had to put a “lid” on it so they couldn’t jump out (which they would have done – no problem). We bought rabbit food and also put clover out for them to eat so they would start eating like they would in the wild. To our joy and surprise, they all survived.  When they were big enough, we took them to a nice, quiet, safe park-like setting and turned them loose. My mom was very particular on where we released them. One Sunday, she drove around for hours until she found the “perfect place” to set them free. It had lots of grass and flowers and a little stream where they could get water. When we let them loose from the pet carrier, they all three took off in different directions but the one that was “her favorite” and would let her hold it the most, ran a little ways then stopped. It sat there for about five minutes and just looked around and then, it too, took off. She said it stopped to say goodbye and thank you to her and wanted her to know it was happy to be free and that it would be alright. There were a lot of wild geese all around so she felt good knowing that if the birds were there then it must be safe for the geese AND the bunnies. She said she is so glad to have been able to help them and give them a new chance at life. She thinks of them once in a while and just SMILES. Thank you, mom, for taking on such a time-consuming but rewarding responsibility. They would have never made it without you. |
