Half-Way

For several days now whenever we have let Anise outside to run around and get out some of the crazies she has been trying to get under our deck and, failing, barking animatedly. This is the same thing she does when there is a rabbit out of reach (in the neighbors yard, across the street) and she is excited by the possibility but frustrated by the circumstances. This morning she found a way under the deck and shortly thereafter a rabbit did emerge. A very small rabbit.

I have no idea what transpired under our deck this morning. The rabbit that emerged had a small amount of blood around its mouth and one eye appeared to have been permanently damaged. It was making small, pathetic squeaking sounds and was laid out on its back, chest heaving but otherwise unmoving.

What do you do with a half-way dead infant wild rabbit?

We couldn't leave it laying there but we had and have no interest in a baby rabbit for another pet. We choose to give it shelter for the morning, to try to make it as comfortable as possible. We fully expected it to be dead within the hour and made a home that would be easy to bury when the time came. I found a spot in our basement that they dogs can't get to and where its nice and cool. I left two ice cubes in the improvised water tray we were using along with a portion of a leaf of lettuce and small strawberry before I went to school that morning.

This evening when I returned it was still alive. It seemed to be resting and though not moving around in traditional rabbit style, it was clearly still able to move. We're going to try to assess the situation more clearly this evening.

The end game isn't very clear to me. Do we hope to nurse it back to health and set it free? Where is its mother? What if it has been permanently injured in a way that will make it impossible to survive on its own?

Its hard to say what were going to do with this little fur-ball our dog thrust into our lives.

Its not clear from the photo but the little guy is only a few inches long, more like a mouse than a rabbit.