This is my post for #freewriters 2413 prompt the hour has come hosted by @mariannewest
It was December 2nd, 2023 when I saw one of the dogs jumping on something in the yard, I walked over to see what she had, it was this little bunny, there were two of them but she had already killed one, this one was still alive, I figured he was about a week old. I hunted the entire yard and could not find the nest and I had to be somewhere so I put him in a box with an old shirt and put the box where the dogs could not get to it.
When I got home, I did not know what to do but I knew I should feed it. I had some 2% milk but was not sure if he could have it, I did not think about googling it, but since I did not know if he could have it I mixed the milk with half and half with water. All I had to feed him with was a syringe for basting turkeys. When my husband got home he googled it and found out that milk can kill a baby rabbit, so for that night and in the morning I gave him only water. Google said to feed them evaporated goat's milk so my husband went online and found that Walmart sells it. Everyone told me it is hard to keep baby rabbits alive but I was willing to try my best.
The turkey baster was giving him too much water so my husband found this little bottle from when he used to vape, the juice came in it. I washed it and put water in it until I could get the goat's milk, but I did not like the metal tip.
It had a rubber thing that slid over the tip to keep the juice in, my husband cut the end off of it so it had a hole in it and the rubber covered the metal tip, this worked great, I could squeeze little drops into his mouth.
Weeks went by and he was growing but I did not know if he was out of the woods yet. I was still afraid something could happen to him.
By this time I was pretty sure he was going to make it and my plan was to release him at a petting zoo that is in walking distance from my house, they had tame rabbits that hopped around the property. But I found out that the bobcats had gotten all of the rabbits, so that plan went out the window.
My plan was to still release him so I did not give him a name. I knew I could not release him near my house because we had gotten quite attached and if he saw me he would come into the yard and one of the dogs would get him.
At this age I decided that the hour has come to release him, I was going to take him out on the preserve where I saw signs of other rabbits and let him go but first I wanted to be sure I was doing it right, I googled how to release a hand raised baby rabbit and it told me the steps on making a pen outside and taking him out to it each day, then I read that you should never release a lone rabbit, the others will not accept it. This is when I gave him a name, Rudy.
People say he is the most spoiled wild rabbit. He not only gets store bought rabbit food and Timothy Hay, I give him veggies from our garden and pull a basket full of grasses from our yard every day, plus he gets fruits, apples, strawberries, blackberries, melons, tomatoes, etc.
Now that he has gotten older he will only let me pet him after I give him a treat, if I do not give him one he runs to his house. People say they get mean when they get older but this has not happened yet. He is now 7 months old and I love him so much.
photos are mine