What I Learned From a Bunny About Reaching the Lost: Helping People Without Pushing Them Away
Several years ago my husband stumbled upon something pretty cool in our backyard. It was a bunny nest. Apparently, a rabbit had built a nest in our backyard under the kid’s playset, and when my husband moved it to mow he realized something moving around when he mowed over the area. Now don’t panic (yet)…none of the babies were hurt.
So we moved the playset back over the top of the nest, and I scooped up one of the little escapees and nestled him back in with his siblings so he would be safe. We were even able to watch the momma bunny come back later that evening and nurse the babies as they hopped out from under the playset to meet her. We are some major animal lovers at our house (ok…maybe just my daughter and myself) so this was REALLY cool for us. We come across a variety of wildlife at our house, and we love being able to appreciate them.
What happened next…
Bunny Nest
I wondered about those baby bunnies all night. Well, the next day after dropping my kids off at school I went home and let my dog outside, watching her to make sure she didn’t go near the nest. I noticed several very large crows hovering in the trees over our backyard and flying around. Then I noticed a cat in the wooded area behind our back fence, and sure enough, my dog went straight over to the playset and started sniffing around.
So I went outside to redirect her and shoo away the crows and cat. To my horror (now you can panic), I discovered that the bunny nest had apparently been attacked by some predator. Several of the bunnies were missing, and I found remains of partially eaten bunnies and 2 more that hadn’t been eaten but had apparently been killed. I was mortified!
I noticed there were still 2 babies in the nest. Then, I decided to survey the area for any others and clean up the area to avoid any more predators (probably why the crows were lurking overhead). I found two more babies that were out of the nest. One was further underneath the playset, and one was against the back fence. I retrieved them both to put them back in their nest and get them out of the open.
However, one of the bunnies kept hopping back out and running into the open again when I did. I kept talking to him and said, “Hey, I’m trying to help you. I’m not going to hurt you, just trying to save your life. I’m a friend, not an enemy.” He was understandably very frightened (and apparently couldn’t speak human!). Each time I put him in the nest, he kept running back out until he eventually ran to the fence and underneath it into the wooded area behind our house.
I had to let him go. I said a quick prayer for him and his safety as he hopped away. He didn’t understand that I was trying to help him and that I actually loved him and wouldn’t hurt him. He didn’t understand that I had his best interest in mind.