Then there was the Bunny

On a certain Saturday before Mother's Day a few years ago, I happened to look out our back window and observe a feral cat terrorizing several little Cottontail Bunnies. I quickly ran out the door to chase away the cat. Several of them were already dead, but one hopped over to my house, cowering in the corner. I picked him up (him or her, I don't know) and brought him into the safety of our kitchen. We found a shoebox to put him in, placed it on the counter and then got some lettuce and water. He wouldn't eat or drink. I didn't look closely at his injuries, but I could see he was traumatized.

What happened next - we left the room and when we came back, he had left the box, presumably jumping out of the box on the counter - about 3 ft. We searched the house for about an hour (big house - 2600 sq ft big). Finally located him behind the toilet in one of the bathrooms.

So we got a taller box, set it on the counter again, left the room, came back and he's gone! It took us longer to find him this time, but we did find him hiding behind the sofa in the living room. All this time we are searching the internet for a wildlife refuge that would take him - we had no intention of keeping this wild creature! Well no one was taking cottontails (they are very common). He wouldn't eat or drink, so we were worried about his health.

On Mother's Day, we finally found someone to take the little guy, but couldn't take him until the next day. Needless to say, it was miles away. The lady at the shelter, had many wild animals as well as a few bunnies. She said she would nurse him back to health and release him to the wild. He did have a bad injury on his hind leg (how did he jump like that?). She treated him with antibiotics.

I got the idea to paint a watercolor in remembrance of my bunny, so here he is. The picture was on the cover of the Gold Canyon Ledger, which brought some attention to my work.