Monday, July 27, 2009

The $100 Bunny

Let's see...I have a wedding to tell you about, and a belated GCC post for the extremely talented Carleen Brice, but those will be coming later this week, because today I rescued this adorable baby bunny from what I'm guessing would have been a very ugly fate.

While walking this morning, Daisy and I encountered the bane of my existence: the orange and white cat that roams our neighborhood. Now, I like cats. They can be cuddly, amusing, and quite personable. So, I like cats. When they are kept INDOORS. This particular cat has, over the last two years:

  • Turned portions of my yard into his own personal litter box;
  • Squished and/or shredded expensive perennials in my yard;
  • Killed shrews in my yard;
  • Killed a nest of baby Cardinals in my yard; YET~
  • Somehow evaded roaming packs of cruel children, speeding vehicles, other larger cats, dogs, coyotes, thorns and prickers, disease, parasites, pestilence...you get the picture.

It is nearly ALWAYS in my yard, lying in wait near my bird feeders or bedding down in my flowers, and Daisy and I routinely shoo it away (or spray it away with the hose set on F-22 Fighter Jet). I have also, on four separate occasions, seen other neighbors carrying this beast down the sidewalk, back to the address listed on its collar. So it has a home. But not very responsible owners.

This morning, the cat was skulking away from the neighbor's yard with a screaming baby bunny in its mouth.

Have you ever heard a baby bunny scream? It's not pleasant. It actually sounds very human. So Daisy and I swung into action, eventually convincing the cat to drop the baby in the middle of the intersection and run off. (This 'convincing' consisted of Daisy going apeshit-bananas-crazy all up in the cat's face...strangely, she never even noticed the baby rabbit.)

And there lay this infant bunny, small and brown and helpless in the middle of the street. Damn. My heart sank, because at that point, I was "involved." I picked the little girl up, took her inside, tucked her into a box with some towels and a warm water bottle, and called every local wildlife rehabber I could find. Unfortunately, among those I could get ahold of, nobody was taking rabbits.

So I drove her to the Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary, which willingly accepted this sweet little critter into their rehab program. I know the odds are still long for her survival (wild baby rabbits don't do well in human care), but I wouldn't be able to sleep tonight if I hadn't at least attempted to save this tiny life--because it was dropped very nearly at my feet, and also because that's just me. Before I left the facility, I wrote them a check for a hundred bucks. "That's quite a bit for just a little bunny!" the woman at the counter replied.

It wasn't just for the rabbit, of course. The sanctuary is a non-profit nature education center, caring for over 4,000 orphaned, sick, or injured animals in 2008 alone. I can think of worse things to spend a hundred bucks on. My good deed for the day? Totally worth it.

I recently saw the cat sneaking back to the scene of the crime, and Daisy and I chased it off again. My neighbors must think I've totally lost it. I may need to call the Humane Society tomorrow. It could be time to give the local wildlife a break from Mr. Killsforfun. A confrontation with kitty's owners is out of the question. If four of my neighbors couldn't convince, perhaps the inconvenience of fetching kitty from a facility across town will. And who knows? Maybe a compassionate individual would adopt him and keep him INDOORS, safe from cat fights and cars and disease.

14 comments:

  1. That cat's no good. I know that's just about the greatest understatement of the year, but seriously, that kitty's a terror! Hooray for giving the bunny a chance :).

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  2. I know rabbits are classified as vermin. I know they carry disease. I know they destroy veggies in gardens far and wide. Yet I love them. I'm glad he's got some people caring for him today.

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  3. bless your heart! if i was close enough so that i could hug you i would.

    ironically enough the word verification for this post was "whoticat".

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  4. Cats on the loose are a total menace! We have that same problem out where I live. Good on ya mate for resucing the bunny! I would have done the same thing. Hope she lives and finds a family to love her.

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  5. ((shudder)) that was very kind of you. Actually - the Wombat has a taste for baby bunnies too. He 'started' the job, and The Big Guy had to 'finish' it. with a big rock.

    Big Guy was in tears, I was in tears, Wombat was wondering why we didn't let him finish the job, it would have been alot less fanfair.

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  6. Awwww. I have fond memories of visiting Bay Beach Amusement Park and Wildlife Sanctuary as a child. Thanks for the daily smile. You're the best! :)

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  7. Too bad you dont live in a rental. When we changed managers 2 years ago, one woman with 2 dogs and 2 cats thought it was time to let her cats roam free. They pooped in the flower beds and stunk up the place. e called the owners who put an end to that. One of her dogs would not stop barking so the owners made her get a bark collar, and not the citonella kind.

    All you have to do is call animal control and let them take care of it. If your town mandates registration and that cat doesn't have a registration on its collar, it will be confiscated and returned only when the fines are paid and shots given.

    It's all done anonymously.

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  8. Unfortunately, there is a very large camp of cat owners who think it's cruel and unusual punishment to keep cats inside, and let there cats go on their lonesome ways by their lonesome selves, as Kipling didn't say. We used to have outdoor cats, which I honestly do not believe were terrors, but I'm not sure. Then one of them didn't come home one day. I don't know if it was a dog or a car or what, but we never saw it again. After that, I decided that I would never again have an outdoor cat. And that's without the menace aspect, even. Then I married a man who is extremely allergic to cats, and the indoor/outdoor cat question became moot, and we have a very lovely dog instead.

    That was one cute little bunny you got there. Too bad you couldn't keep it as a pet.

    I saved a jellyfish once...it had washed in and was drying out, but you could see its pulse, so it was clearly alive. Picked it up with a plastic bag to cover my hands (wasn't sure if it was the stinging kind), and carried it out to where the waves could get it. I swear, it looked so darned HAPPY washing out to sea, where it belonged. :)

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  9. ACK. Ignore the 'there' that should have been a 'their'. I hate it when I make a mistake that also happens to be one of my own pet peeves.

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  10. Oh do it--kidnap (or catnap) that cat. Haul it off to the Humane Society.
    Save a bird, save a bunny, AND save a cat.

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  11. Sounds like he is a bad kitty. We have one outdoor/indoor (comes in at night) because our landlord would not let us keep all 4 in the house. However these kitties were raised around rabbits, birds, reptiles. I've not seen him mess with wildlife yet and he sticks around the house.

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  12. Anonymous11:11 AM

    Ah, Wild Kingdom in your back yard! Our sweet Lady Violet has a penchant for fresh meat--chipmunks, rabbits, mice, moles, squirrels, birds--but they're in abundance out here and she's kind of keeping the population in check. In town? Unthinkable. It's one thing to have an outdoor country cat. In town? That cat "might get hit by a car." Or something. Just sayin. Your good deed for the rabbit would offset any guilt related to the "removal" of said cat.

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  13. I have a lurking, garden litter box cat that hangs out in my yard.

    I also have a bunny that comes every year to my yard to have her babies. I haven't seen her in a bit and will go APE-$HIT on neighbors if I find one dead bunny in yard (I purposely grow clover for them).

    I'm glad you found a place for the bunny. Hope she survives.

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  14. okay, i just cried three tears and you are SO MY HERO RIGHT NOW.

    seriously. poor little bunny!

    you and daisy are total rockstars.

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