DH and I decided to make a few raised beds there and we were working at putting in another one, so I had to do some weed removal before we could put the bed in.
So, I'm on my knees pulling away the weeds and all of a sudden a tuft of fur is revealed. I couldn't really see anything, but all I could think was, "oh no, who have I disturbed?"
I didn't want to reveal too much, but I had to know, what was there.
It turned out to be a rabbit's nest with 7 babies in it! What on earth are baby rabbits doing being born in mid September?!! DH said, They're rabbits! They're always having babies!"
I was afraid to move them, but DH insisted since they were in our way. So, very carefully, with a shovel, I dug all around the nest and move them down about five feet from where they were. That was when I was able to see that there were seven of them in this tiny nest and that their eyes were still closed.
I looked up on the internet and it said that if their eyes were closed that they were under 10 days old. I stayed for four days and on that fourth day, one had it's eyes open just a tiny bit and they had grown to the size you see.
I was afraid that the mother would not come back, but by the second day after my moving the nest the mother had done a great job of hiding her little babies again and I knew that she was coming back to care for them.
My DH said we should have gotten rid of them, which I could never have done, because he felt they would eat the garden and leave nothing for us. As far as I could tell, momma bunny had only eaten one of the cabbage plants that we had let go, so it really was not a garden loss in my book.
I'm glad she felt it was some place safe to have her family. Please, remind me of that next spring and summer if my garden is eaten continually by rabbits!
No comments:
Post a Comment