Now You Know the Rest of the Story

This is Part II of a story about a bunny we found. Click here to read the first part.
As with most stories regarding the rescue of a baby bunny, our bunny story didn't end well. When I got up the next morning, he had died. I had prepared the kids for this possibility but still, the first words out of Muffin's mouth when she got up were, "Is the bunny still alive?" She was very disappointed. They both (Muffin and Doodle) wanted to hold it so I let them. Muffin was pretty upset so I printed out one of the pictures I had taken the day before of her with the bunny for her to take to school with her. I asked her what she liked most about the bunny and she listed a few things. Then she wrote them down on the printout, beside the picture. She proceeded to interview everyone else and write down their answers too.

After school we buried it in a little box by the well. Muffin made a grave stone that I'll post a picture of later (it's rainy today). At the funeral we all talked about what we'll remember about the bunny and then placed flowers on its grave. Things like this soften me as a person and I'm grateful for the chance to share this with the kids.

The Easter Bunny??

Some days are busy and some days are fun and some days are just nuts. Bring on the squirrels because today was one of the latter!

It started out slow. I was expecting my friend Dina to stop by so that we could attack her son's AWANA car with some power tools. I was also expecting the Fed Ex guy to drop off my new computer. I was just hoping they wouldn't overlap. Now, this seems weird to me but it has happened twice and I DON'T LIKE IT. Our driveway is set up so that it curves up to our attached garage. I often can't see or hear someone coming. Also, I tend to leave the garage door open when I come home (I don't want to wear it out!!!). So the delivery guy, instead of ringing the bell at the front door, walks into my garage and knocks on the kitchen door. Naturally, I didn't hear it but I think that it was pretty irresponsible of him not to walk around on the sidewalk to the front door and ring the bell. But he didn't. So I missed him.

When Dina came, we walked over to my dad's shop so that we could cut some wood off and make it weigh a little less. We also sanded it down again. It is a BEAUTIFUL day here so Doodle and Mator were contentedly playing outside while all this was going on. I was showing Dina around a little when Oreo, one of my mom's cats, comes up with a "prize". Only this time it wasn't a mouse and it was still alive. It was a baby bunny! And I mean BABY. Its eyes weren't even open yet! But it was still alive. So guess who has a newborn bunny to take care of, requiring feedings every couple hours? Man is it cute though. And I've already set Doodle up that it will probably die but we will do everything we can for it. My mom's vet set us up with some puppy milk and told us to mix it with whipping cream and feed it with a syringe.

The first feeding went well, Doodle cuddled the bunny while I tried to feed it. It ate enough that I think it was getting the idea. When Muffin gets home, we'll try for a second feeding. The good news is that it was considerably more active when I got back from the vets about two hours after we last saw it. The vet also recommended filling latex gloves with water and microwaving them to provide heat. We put a thin towel over them and I snuggled him up against the fingers. When I came back, he had climbed on top of the hand part and nuzzled against the side of the box. He is so cute! This will be a great lesson for the kids no matter what but it would be great if it survived!
***************** Update: 8:15 PM****** He's still alive! Had another feeding. Seemed a little less active than earlier though. Hang in there bunny!***********************