Tales from the Bunny Morgue

Disclaimer: This is not a bedtime story for children. It may not even be suitable for some adults.

E and I live in a fairly new neighborhood. Since I grew up mostly in the country, I had concerns that this new city community would not have much wildlife. I just wanted some birds...maybe a squirrel or rabbit now and then. Watch what you wish for...

We came home from a walk a couple nights ago and I saw a tiny baby bunny by our fence. We oohed and ahhed. Fast forward to later in the night when our dog (Golden Retriever) went outside for her usual nightly duty. We had already let her out a couple times since the bunny sighting. I was upstairs feeding EG when E burst in saying that the dog had found the baby rabbits out in the yard. (Before you call PETA on me, please know that I didn't know there was more than one, nor did I know the nest was in our yard.) E described it as the dog tossing the bunnies like bean bags. If you have dog, you know this is fairly normal play. Our dog is not a killer.

I went outside to find one bunny hurt, one dead inside our fence and one dead outside our fence. No momma bunny has ever been seen. I picked up the dead ones and got rid of them, but I was in a quandry about the hurt bunny. Horrible thoughts of hit him with a shovel went through my head, but I couldn't do it. I walked around the yard in a crying frenzy. Finally, I set the bunny upright and tapped him in the butt to get him to move and he hopped. So, I put him under a bush and hoped beyond hope that his momma would come and he would be okay.

Yesterday morning he was under the bush dead. I did find three live bunnies. The dog doesn't understand why she's not allowed in the yard. E and I had conversations about how we hate when the rabbits eat our garden. I told her the dog can chase them away when they're grown.

E sprayed some bug killer in the garage yesterday that smelled, so we left the garage open for a while. This morning when I went out to walk the dog, there was a baby bunny in our garage outside our back door dead. I cannot find any of the other bunnies in our yard and I took the dog out for a supervised visit hoping she'd help me find them. No luck.

So, I am in bunny hell. I must have been Elmer Fudd ("kill the wabbit") in a former life and this is karma. Circle of life...whatever. It's worse now that I'm a mom. Poor things.

m