Guarding the Son of Bun

As readers of this blog will know, I get very happy when we spot the Bun-Bun (aka a rabbit) in the backyard. It's a sign of spring, and if I see him or her later on in the summer, I'm still thrilled.

This morning, my husband spotted our neighbor's cat, Rocky, in our yard, with something in his mouth. He dropped it and it was moving. Rocky was sitting about three feet away, just...waiting.

Was it a bird? A mouse? No, says my husband in dismay, it looks like a baby bunny!

What? Son of Bun attacked, possibly dead? Was this even possible? Weren't baby bunnies born in the spring?

Since I was in my jammies and Hubby was dressed, he went out to investigate. Rocky continued to sit where he was.

Yes! It was Son of Bun! Oh, no!

I went out, jammie-clad as I was. Perhaps it was the sight of me striding purposefully forward, or the shock of my hot pink nightwear, or because there were now two people involved, but for whatever reason, Rocky sauntered away through the fence, to take up a surveillance position under the neighbor's deck.

After careful study from a short distance, we determined Son of Bun was alive. Such relief! But what to do? We didn't want to touch it, in case we scared it even more, and we couldn't bring it into the house anyway, where three cats reside. But we weren't willing to leave it alone, on the grass, with Rocky nearby.

As Hubby kept watch, I hurried into the house, got dressed (including a fleece jacket because it was pretty chilly in the shade), got the paper and my tea and went outside. I moved a chair about six feet from Son of Bun, and prepared to protect our little friend.

After about fifteen minutes, I was rewarded by the sight of Son of Bun hopping to the back of the yard, to the edge of the garden, when he proceeded to stay.

A little while later, I saw Rocky strolling along the hedge at the other side of the yard. Almost at once, a bigger rabbit burst out of the hedge and tore across the yard, passing Son of Bun without a pause, through the neighbor's fence into their yard, where he stopped and sat and looked around. Was this a relative, perhaps a parent of the baby bunny? Had Son of Bun been out with Daddy or Mommy and been caught by the cat? Did the larger rabbit realize it had passed the baby?

Bigger Bunny continued through the neighbor's yard and away.

Daughter, by now privy to the morning's excitement, got up and dressed and, with breakfast and a book in tow, came out to join me. We checked Son of Bun and had a moment's panic when we realized there was an ant crawling on him, and his eyes were closed. Had he died after all?

No! As closer inspection revealed, he was breathing. Were we traumatizing the poor thing more by getting close? Fearing we were, we went back to the lawn chairs.

Eventually, after an hour had passed with no sign of Rocky and with Son of Bun still in the (deeper) undergrowth close to the pile of sticks from my spring trimming efforts, we felt we could go inside, and probably should, so Son of Bun would relax and hopefully get home safely.

I just went out to check, and he's gone.

I hope the poor little guy made it home okay!

(If you want to see the map enlarged, go here.)