We dodged a bullet in the Seeley household last week, well at least I did, I’m not sure the boys would agree with me. Our pet total to date stands as follows: two dogs, one cat, two frogs, a fish, a couple of snails, and a hamster prone to escaping his cage (aptly named Houdini.) I thought for a few short hours that we’d be adding a wild baby bunny to our ever-growing zoo.
Here’s the issue, Gordy is animal whisperer. His gift isn’t limited to one species or specific breed. Wherever we go animals find him, or better yet he finds them. I don’t have enough fingers and toes to count how many dogs we’ve returned to owners over the last decade. Stray cats and raccoons know they’ll find food on our front porch. Vacationing in Cozumel last spring he rescued a turtle crossing the road. Yep, I said turtle. So, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that last week while driving home from a leisurely Saturday lunch, Gordy slammed on the brakes, stopped the car in the middle of the road and came back cradling a tiny wild bunny in his hands.
To compound matters, Luke seems to have inherited the “speaks to animals” gene. The pleas began the moment he saw the bunny. “Please, oh please mom, can we keep it?” There were promises of warm bottles, a covered cage in the backyard, and late night bunny feedings. Gordy’s sheepish, begging eyes didn’t help, “You know Kate, it doesn’t have a chance out there.”
Oh great, so either I add a wild bunny to our collection of animals or I become know in our house as the bunny killer. What’s a mom to do?
Enter Google. And let me just say thank you Google. Turns out wild bunnies don’t make good pets. In fact upon further investigation, I discovered that wild bunnies have less chance of survival in human hands than when left to perils of nature. I further consulted the emergency vet, who assured me the best solution was indeed to return the bunny to the wild. Probably in an attempt to make us all feel better, the vet suggested we create a nest for the bunny out of a cardboard box and fill it with leaves and twigs. Luke took this idea to heart, adding baby carrots to attract the older bunnies. We tucked the nest under a bramble of blackberry bushes and within seconds the little guy hopped back into the vines. “Go little guy, you’re back home!” Luke shouted. Yes, he was, and I gotta say I was just a little sad that his home wasn’t ours.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 12th, 2010 at 9:51 pm and is filed under Made Me Laugh, Parenting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
