Monday, May 23, 2005

In Memory of Peter Cottontail

David was mowing the overgrown "jungle"...

that's next to our house, yesterday when suddenly he went all pale, stopped the mower and went "AARRGGHHH!!!! I KILLED A BABY RABBIT!!!!!"

I rushed to the "crime scene" to see that while mowing the thick underbrushes, he had uncovered a rabbit's nest with 5 or 6 little cottontail babies wriggling around inside. ONE had flopped out and writhing about ( the one David has apparently "killed" ).

We immediately called up his niece, who's brilliant and knows these things, and she said to cover up the nest with some grass coz the mother usually feeds them twice a day - right before dawn, and at dusk...and she might not abandon them as yet. We WERE worried about their momma leaving them, ( but we've seen her last night and this morning lurking around the nest, so we know she's still around ), but the sun is just sooo unrelenting that we were afraid they might get overheated and die of dehydration / sun exposure.

ANYWAY, the little one that had flopped out, tried to "escape" this morning - I wonder if it was a concussion causing it to hallucinate ( David swore he must have whacked it with some part of the mower ) or whatever, but we brought it into the house, tried to call the zoo, the vet, and any other animal shelter we could think of, to no avail.



So, now "Peter" Cottontail is in a box in my room, far from the clutches of TABBY, hopefully recuperating while we go out today and get some kitty formula milk replacement for it.

We would rather it was out there with the other babies, but we'll play it by ear for now and keep watching out for Momma Cottontail.

UPDATE : Peter didn't make it.............*sigh*


24 comments:

Ms One Boobie said...

Bummer..!!

Anonymous said...

Awwww......... I'm sory Letti. :-(

Agnes said...

Oh ... I'm so sorry! But that's life ... especially animals in the wild nature. Tell David it's not his fault.

makuahine said...

awwwww

Anonymous said...

oh how adorable. I'm so sorry to hear about that. At least you tried though! I'm so sorry, Letti.

Anonymous said...

Hooray for people named David and their spouses to be who care enough to rescue baby bunnies.
But two quotes from Calvin and Hobbes:
"It's not nice of you to leave me just when I was getting to know you."
"I know he's gone out here but he's still alive inside me."

warchild13@spymac.com
warchild.iconrate.net/weblog/

SooHK said...

ummm, peter....sorry to hear about it..

Animesh said...

"Peter Cottontail"!!! LOVE that name!

K. Restoule said...

I'm sorry to hear about the bunnies. It's really sad but there was no way of knowing. David, there was no way, you could have known.

Laura.Y said...

oh no. I'm so sorry to hear that. *hugs

Anonymous said...

Ohh Letti.. sorry to hear Peter didnt make it :( Its not David's fault.. shame. He was so cute too *sighs*

Monica said...

OH Poor Peter,
My brother in law started a car in my parents driveway and there were kittens in there and one died from being hit by the engine fan....at least the rest of the bunnies will be ok :)

Ignatius M. Dedd said...

that was really nice of you.

Jaxon S said...

you and the rest tried. that speaks a lot about compassion!

Anonymous said...

Aww! *hugs* Letti!

<"3 )~ taranicole

Sarah said...

Awww poor little Peter, Thats so sad. In our garden we keep catching frogs in the mower. Its not very nice.

Pickle said...

aww that is too bad Letti...

Well at least you didnt do what my dad did once...he ran out into the backgarden in his slippers in the rain to empty the rubbish bin...he slipped on something and when he went to go back into the house he realised he had stepped on our pond toad who had only been resident for 4 years! He didn't talk for the rest of the day!
Hope the other bunnies do ok...

Anonymous said...

Oh no! That's horrible. I hate when I see animal tragedy. I cried yesterday when I saw a puppy alongside the highway.

carmen said...

so sorry to hear about that. i was holding out for little peter.

*~*HollyMarie*~* said...

I'm so sorry to hear that. My mom did something similar. She was mowing the grass and ran over a lil birdies nest with eggs in it. She felt so horrible. Things like that happen.

Well, I have graduation things to get done! Tootles

Ashley said...

AWww.. at least you tried!

KEF said...

Girl, I'm sorry to hear this.

Thao said...

Letti, it's very sad but you or David couldn't have known. At least the rest are ok, right?

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry to hear that Peter didn't make it.

But he was very loved and adored for the short time he was in your lives!