At one o’clock in the morning, big fireworks woke me out of a dead sleep. I went outside to see if I could watch the spectacle but found nothing. As I sat down to wait for the next barrage, a cat flew down the walkway into the shed and another blur ran over my feet to the left.
I walked around the corner to find a baby bunny huddled in the corner, obviously terrified. I picked her up and brought her in to check her condition. Her wounds looked painful. I cleaned her up and gently rubbed on antibiotic ointment. I could feel every bone in her tiny body so I pulled a tomato and some cabbage out of the fridge and put the pieces in a small bowl that was half-filled with clean water.
After wrapping her in a towel and holding her for an hour-long nap, she woke-up hungry! She ate most of the cabbage and a big chunk of tomato. I waited until she was finished, then re-applied ointment and wrapped her back up in the towel for a much longer nap.
As soon as the grocery store opened, I ran out to purchase a large container of Spring greens. She has been mowing those like a champ. It was a long night and day of constant contact, but this morning I could see she was feeling much improved so I set-up a huge box for her to continue healing.
All of this made me wonder about outdoor cats so I did a bit of research. Did you know that “researchers from the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) estimated that free-roaming cats in the contiguous U.S. kill 1.3–4.0 billion birds and 6.3–22.3 billion mammals annually.” That is billion with a “B”.
I have nothing against cats but dang! Those free-roamers sure do cause a lot of death. Though the studies are ambiguous to perhaps cause the numbers to be inflated, one thing everyone seems to agree on is that we really don’t know how best to manage free-roaming cat populations. I agree with Spay and Neuter as much as possible but that’s easier said than done, right?
Anyway, the baby bunny is going to heal and I will release her back to our yard with high hopes. Today is one-year since Ziggy, my big beautiful dog, entered my life and unbeknownst to me would only be with me for seven short months. Hopefully, this baby bunny will live far longer. I will certainly continue putting Spring greens out for her and look forward to watching her grow into a big long-eared rabbit.
