Easter Bunny

Last night Dougal came home, but there was no sign of Florence. It eventually got dark and I was ready for bed, but still no sign of Florence. Prevaricating slightly it got about half-an-hour later and Dougal dashed to the back door, we went to see what he was after and Florence appeared carrying a very dead baby bunny. We managed to persuade her to release it and come into the house. During the time she had been missing Mrs GOG had decided for sure that Florence had gone under a train or got otherwise injured and was laying somewhere probably dead. When Florence arrived I reminded her of Schrodinger’s cat, which was both dead and alive until the box was opened; I also was fairly sure we would not see Florence again.

Today we went, once again, to Addenbrookes for an appointment of mine, leaving the cats in the house. After Addenbrookes we visited Scotsdales and I collected a replacement pair of loppers, which had broken during their guarantee period and had been replaced. Upon our return home we let the cats out and Dougal, a few seconds later, rather than minutes came home with this little bunny in his mouth; completely uninjured. I did not really feel that Dougal should be permitted to kill this little creature and he was persuaded to let it go, so here is a picture of it in my hand at that point in time. The question now was what to do with it, it could not be released because Florence or Dougal would immediately catch it and kill it, also there was a fair chance that its mother had already been killed, a dead female rabbit lay on the road outside of the house. Mrs GOG used to have a pet rabbit and the hutch although rather dilapidated was still sound enough to put this little animal in, although how to feed this small animal and keep it warm enough was another problem. A few minutes later Florence brought home another bunny, so I decided to pop both of the into the hutch, together with adequate dried leaves, grass etc., water, food and a little milk. I suspect that there is a fair chance that in the morning there will be two small dead bunnies in the hutch, but this way they at least have a chance; I can only now wait and see.

What to do with them in the long-term is yet another problem, Dougal and Florence will tackle bunnies their own size so I suspect that they will have to be released up at the quarry on the far side of the wetland that adjoins us. That should cause no one any problems in that the land is not farmed and be far enough away that the cats do not catch them. They have yet to grow to a size where they can fend for themselves before this can be considered.