Nature Takes Its Course

The first day that Stanley disturbed the bunny nest, I had seen the mother bunny bolting away a few hours later. I figured I had just scared her off.

The following day, I got a call back from a Wildlife Rehabilitator, who told me not to disturb the nest, as I’d figured. I said I hadn’t seen the mother bunny but I had seen movement in the top layer of leaves, so she said the mother bunny might just be hiding for now. She said the babies would vacate the nest after a short time, since they already had their eyes open and weren’t pink.

“Either the mother will come back or she won’t,” she said, “Even if the babies aren’t abandoned, they could still end up as prey. That’s nature.”

I think she realized I was horrified, because she quickly added, “But you can poke the nest with a stick or something without human scent on it if you don’t see movement later, and give me a call back if the bunnies look like they’ve been abandoned and need help.”

On April 26, I still hadn’t seen the mother bunny, and I didn’t see the top layer of leaves moving, so I cautiously lifted off the top of the nest. A little bunny began wiggling around, so I hurriedly replaced the leaf layer and figured the mother bunny was just visiting at night.

Today I still hadn’t seen the mother bunny since Stanley bothered the nest, so I looked around with my stick. I had to dig fairly deep, and finally I asked Chris to check if the nest was empty.

Chris rolled his eyes (“Just leave it alone,” he said), but I was nervous, and Chris loves me, so he got the shovel and gently shoveled the leaves off.

We saw a baby bunny, curled up, unmoving, with its eyes closed.

“That’s dead, isn’t it,” I said.

“Yeah,” Chris said. “But only one dead; that’s not too bad.”

“Maybe I should look around for the others,” I said, moving closer with my stick.

I think Chris already knew what we were going to find, because he said, “No, just leave it.”

I had to find out though, so I poked around and after moving more leaves around, I saw the other baby bunnies, all with their eyes closed.

“Are they all dead?” I said. I gently nudged the topmost bunny with my stick. It didn’t move.

“What am I supposed to do with them?” Chris wondered.

“Bury them,” I guessed.

“Well, leave it for now,” Chris said. He turned to go back into the house.

“But they’ll be even worse later on,” I said. “All…maggotty.”

Chris went back to his computer game.

I felt like throwing up.

Dumb Stanley.

“

Posted by: Supersonic Jane | April 28, 2007 | 3:47 pm
Posted in: This Life