Some New Little Visitors...

It looks like wildlife has again invaded, but at least this time they are outside.

Last Thursday I went outside to get the dog and I noticed him digging around and he was very excited. At first I thought there was a bird nest in the yard because I saw a lot of brown grass and what looked like feathers. As I got closer I could see that it was not birds at all but some type of baby mammal and there was one in Riley's mouth! I got him to drop it and carried my very unhappy dog into the house. I grabbed a paper towel so that I could push the animal back in the hole. When I got back outside I figured out that it was a den of baby bunnies and that the one that Riley took out was still alive.

I got the bunny back with his siblings and covered the hole back up with the grass and fur (what I had thought was feathers.) I also looked up how to tell if baby bunnies are being cared for and what to do if you have them in your yard.

The advice given was to leave them alone as much as possible and keep pets away (especially pets that would want to "play" with the bunnies as ours would) and to check them periodically to make sure they are thriving. It also said not to worry if we never saw the mama bunny as they only come to nurse once at night for about 5 minutes. There was advice on how to tell if the den was being visited at night by putting twigs on top in a tic-tac-toe pattern. If the twigs are moved in the morning but the den looks neat then the mother has been there. There was also a recommendation on who to call if it appears that the mother is not coming around and the babies look dehydrated.

So far it looks as though they are being cared for. When I looked at them this morning they were fatter than the first day I saw them and their fur is getting thicker. I managed to get a couple of pictures of them this morning.


Cute little critters, aren't they? You can see the grass moving around on the top of the den sometimes and Riley gets very excited if he happens to be outside when that happens. We will be taking him out on a leash for as long as the bunnies are here so that he can't bother them.

Isaac thinks they're pretty cool too but he knows not to go near them or bother them. I certainly don't want him to go messing with them. I found out that what we were always told about how the mama won't care for a baby that has been touched by humans is a myth (probably made up by parents to keep their kids from touching wild animals and picking up who-knows-what kind of horrible disease) but it's still not a good idea to mess around with them. Not only could they be accidentally injured but who knows what kind of diseases they could be carrying that could be potentially harmful.

Hopefully they will continue to grow and thrive, and then be on their way!