Crippled Bunny

The clouds obscured the west the sun as the wife looked outside and noticed a bunny eating some plants by one of our flower beds. Sitting on a grass hill in the back yard the flower bed just at its mouth is filled mainly with tiger lilies and anemone plants. It gets more shade than sun. A bunny eating some of our plants is not unusual. But, this bunny was unusual. My wife noticed as it stepped forward to further reach in the flower bed, it rolled on its side. This is the story of the crippled bunny we saw early last week.

It was likely a juvenile bunny, not a small baby nor an adult size. One of those cute brown bunnies that are ubiquitous in our yard. We have many bunnies, and more squirrels perhaps due to the fact that both our neighbors have dogs and our yard serves as the sanctuary for these animals. 

I started watching the bunny and it occurred to me that it was likely injured. My wife wondered if it was injured or perhaps had a birth defect. At least one leg would not function, mostly we noticed that the left back would not provide any support. Perhaps the left front was also not functioning fully, and caused the bunny to roll left whenever it moved forward. It could get on its legs, but the legs would not properly support or propel it forward. My wife got out the binoculars and noticed that the head and neck looked funny. There was a deep hole in the neck that had perhaps healed over. From a quick look she thought it looked like it had three eyes. 

It was painful to watch the bunny struggle, but as my wife said it sure has a lot of will power. When faced with a significantly challenging situation the bunny was attempting to make do. At one point it got to close to the edge of the hill and when trying to move it ended up rolling down the hill. It then went and nibbled on the flower bed by our deck. I went outside several minutes later, but could not find it. I chose not to move flowers and scare it. I pondered what I should do. in the end I thought it best to let nature take its course. 

Kohlrabi Plant with most of its leaves eaten off 

I am not sure where the bunny ended up, or if it could even make it up the hill. I looked and watched for the bunny at various times on Monday, but saw no bunnies around. I suppose it is possible, a predator, or a dog attacked it. At swim, when I relayed the story, a woman mentioned that if any feral cats are around the cat could have attacked it. 

Several years ago I recall watching a hawk try to capture a rabbit, but the rabbit was always able to find its way to under a tree or shrub when the hawk dove to try to get it.

When tending the vegetable garden a few weeks ago I saw a young almost baby bunny in the garden. The garden is fenced, but who knows they may sneak in. I went to try to find and shoo him out, but no luck. We do have a kohlrabi gnawed. Earlier in May a nice large kale plant was eaten fully to the ground level. This past weekend we were gone and got home to notice all the leaves have been chewed off the kohlrabi plants, likely stunting the growth of vegetables. Also, the leaves on my nascent pea plants have also been fully chewed off with only the stem a reminder of what was once there. There will be no sugar snap peas this year.

The thing is, sometimes I am getting mad because of the damage a rabbit will do in the garden, and then watching them run around in the yard is kind of neat. In watching this crippled bunny I was concerned, and sad for the little critter. Of course, other critters are at work. I doubt a bunny would leave chew marks in a couple kohlrabi heads. But, many of the leaves on the kohlrabi plants were chewed off this past weekend. I think it is squirrels that dug and likely absconded with many of my newly planted green bean seeds, such that only a few plants have now emerged from the soil.  Early this growing season, in April, I had row covers to help protect the seedlings from critters. One day going into the garden I noticed a squirrel scurrying out with a plant in its mouth. It is hard to compete with critters that have no gumption about destroying your vegetables or flowers. 

I do have say, that if it was a crippled opossum or a racoon I doubt I would have the sympathy as I did for the crippled juvenile bunny. It is something about the bunny, seeing it struggle that produced the sympathy. We have not seen it, or if it died, smelled it in the yard, even with a couple hot days last week. Nature likely took its course on the crippled bunny.