Rabbit Season

This spring ushered in a new experience for us. We had not one, but two litters of baby bunnies to care for.  Well, to be fair, Benjamin had two litters to care for. He has taken over the care of our rabbits in hopes of making it a successful business of sorts.

I'll first introduce you to Father, known as Snow-flake, though I think Benj has since given him a more masculine sounding title.

 

And, our dear mother rabbit known as Cocoa. She is a stray that came to us last summer.

 

 

The first was a litter of three fuzzy lil' snuggy-pies. 

 

Who, of course, all grew to be Adorable.

 

 Boy, are they fun when they are small!

 

Sadly, just after we moved them to their own hutches, two of them escaped.  Insert teary face. :(

 

However, the sadness was short lived, as a new litter of five babies arrived on the scene. Everyone was elated!!

 

Then the next sadness: Momma rabbit flew the coop...er...hopped the hutch, so to speak.  A litter of five with no momma to nurse them??!!

 

Benjamin to the Rescue!

 

 

Benj was a hero and worked hard to hand feed those babies all throughout the day. They were doing fairly well for a week or so. Slowly, though, they started to weaken and, one by one, we said good-bye to the litter.  Insert more sad tears.

 

By the end, we had one little guy left that Elizabeth named, Endurance, and called Eddie. She took over the nursing care of him, but he still didn't make it. He passed away the day after these photos were taken. *tears*

 

Sadly, our little family of babies now rests in the family plot in our yard. I did have a few real tears as I watched my boy dig the grave on that rainy day. *sniff*

 

A sweet blessing came about a week later.  While driving home, the children spotted one of the bunnies at a neighbor's house hopping happily along. They pulled over and were able to catch him! The neighbor said she had been feeding him for a while.  He was plenty chubby, that's for sure! She said she had seen the other nearby, but the children were unable to find her.

 

They are SO happy to have this sweetie guy home again.

 

So, the sign "Baby Bunnies, Reserve One Now!" came down and the two buns left from the litters will have a permanent home here with us.  No more rabbit breeding in our future, as we seem to have lost our Last Female...unless she or her mother surprise us by coming back again one day.

 

Such is often the way of life and business. Not always what we hope for or plan for, but, by the grace of God, always filled with lessons of love and growth.

 

"Many plans are in a man's heart, But the counsel of the LORD will stand."

Proverbs 19:21