Finding Baby Bunnies

The most amazing thing happened last night. I was mowing the lawn and I saw a rabbit dart across the yard. I assumed it was frightened by the sound of the mower. I watched it bound away, its white fluffy underside flashing with every leap. It stopped at the edge of the grass line and turned around watching me mow. That's weird, I thought. We've had rabbits in our yard before and any noise or commotion and they're GONE! Into the weeds, and miles away before you can blink.

I kept mowing a few feet when I noticed two very small animals dart across the lawn. They were so small that they barely reached the tips of the unmowed grass. They took off for the garden and tried to squeeze through the fence.

I called to Zach who was closer to the garden than I was.

"Quick, look there." I pointed.

As I stumbled to get off the lawn mower I stepped down and almost put my foot on another animal.

A baby bunny.

It sat hiding, perfectly still in the grass. Never moving, even though a human was only inches from it.

Zach called to me, now at the fence. "They're baby bunnies!"

"I know there's another one over here too."

Oh, and another! As I looked to my left. It too sat perfectly still, it's camouflage coat making it almost invisible.

One of the bunnies by the garden had managed to squeeze through a wide opening in the fence, but the other was still trying to find a way in. The one in the garden was now trying to find a way out and couldn't find an opening big enough.    

We decided the best thing to do was to bring these two back to where the other two bunnies were hiding and hopefully mom would come back for all four.  I was especially afraid that the one in the garden would be stranded from its family.

When we approached the bunnies, they sat perfectly still, and it was very easy to pick them up.

We brought them over and sat them down next to their family. Poor things were probably scarred to death.

I moved the mower, half sick to my stomach that I had hit a bunny, but thank God I didn't. Needless to say, that part of the yard will probably stay unmowed for a while. At least until we know that the rabbit family has moved on.

A few hours later I was weeding the garden and I noticed that the adult rabbit was back over by that corner of the yard. I couldn't tell if the babies were with her, but I'm assuming she must have found them again.

It was an amazing experience to get to observe a wild bunny so closely. I ran and got my camera and quickly shot a few photos before we left the bunnies alone.