Friday, April 11, 2008

Meet Our "Baby"

Roger, in his habitat
David had been playing at the playground yesterday when he spotted a baby rabbit and quickly came back home to get a plastic container and lid. He caught the baby and came home with a big smile on his face. A "furry pet" had just joined our family. There is a fox that lives in the woods next to the playground and we are wondering if he has hurt the mother. Last year we had four bunnies that lived in our yard, while this year I have only seen one adult bunny and that was last week.

David has named his baby bunny Roger. We have gone online to find out how to take care of this little one. We have also purchased a "habitat" since David doesn't like the idea of a "cage." The habitat now has a curled up baby blanket and a box so Roger can go into it for privacy. I have fed him kitten replacement milk from an eye dropper. He was so sweet. He just stretched out in the baby blanket while I tried to feed him, but he wouldn't eat. I placed some of the milk on and around his mouth, but still no eating. As soon as we placed him back in the habitat he started to lick it off. I think he didn't know what the dropper was and was afraid. After licking all the milk off he went to the water bottle and started to drink. We will try feeding him the milk again later tonight.

Feeding our new baby
I imagine everyone at school today will know about Roger, since David couldn't wait to share the news. He even pulled some friends from the playground last night to meet his new bunny.

David has always been good at catching animals, so this capture was no surprise. The fact that it was a bunny was. He has caught frogs since he was four and when neighbors had a dog "escape" when the door was left open they would come a knocking. The first time our neighbor lost his dog he and his two teenagers tried for about 15 minutes and had given up. When a five-year-old David said "I'll get him." Our neighbor laughed, but a couple minutes later David was back with the dog.

5 comments:

Rose of Sharon said...

Awwwwe, how sweet. Poor little thing, I am so glad that David found it and rescued it! I am glad that you are a good mom and you let him keep it! That is a great hobby to keep him busy for awhile! Hearing how David is, he will probably invent some cool thing for it to do a neat trick or something!

Have fun! Sharon

simplegifts3 said...

This is so sweet. I've heard that the mother rabbits have to help the little ones eliminate urine for a while, and if they are not there, then you have to help them -- is that true? I know it's a weird question, but that's what someone told me.

Kim said...

Our bunny is able to eat without our help now. He is also able to eliminate waste without help. He has grown since David found him and is now hopping and exploring his habitat.

Anonymous said...

Hey Kim!!!!! I dreamed about your "new baby" last night! Can't wait to see him!
Love,
Kelly P.

Kim said...

If David had his way the bunny would have been hopping around the church yesterday.
Roger is so fun to watch.