| A note about this blog: Just how *do* you go about getting into the alpaca lifestyle when it seems near impossible due to lack of funds or lack of a farm? How on earth do you learn to care for these tranquil creatures once you get them home? This journal documents how we started from the ground up with next to no funds and no knowledge, and how, with the help of very supportive breeders and friends, it is possible to make a dream come true! Join me on this very honest and personal journey. ~Roo~ |
My husband tapped urgently on the window last night while he was mowing the lawn in the backyard. ‘Baby bunnies!’ he shouted at us as we looked out. I grabbed my camera and sure enough, here they were :) It appears that they are still living in various parts of our garden. We spotted three last night, not sure where the other two are hiding out, the photographs below are of the same bunny:
When I went out last night to see the bunnies, they were out of the nest. In fact, they were all sitting on top of it and around the small garden statues I had placed there containing timothy hay and water. Although they did not run from me, it was obvious that they were now ‘grown up’ and ready to go into the world, small as they are. I snapped a couple of pictures, but had a feeling that they would not remain here much longer.
And I was right. This morning, the bunnies had departed and left the nest empty. I’ll still leave the table out for a while, and hay and fresh water, in case they need to come back and feel safe. Jesse will be disappointed when I tell them that the bunnies are gone.
The last photos:
Here are the bunnies at 12 days old, I took these the evening before last. As soon as I put them on the towel , one little bunny (the fiestiest of them all!) took off at full speed across the lawn and towards the road, where s/he stopped and waited by the mailbox. I managed to recapture it and bring it back to its siblings, but boy, that one sure is fiesty! They were all a little jumpy as a matter of fact, not sure why, I thought at the time that perhaps their natural instincts were kicking in and this was the point where really, all the cuddling was over.
Last night, by the time I got home it was too dark to photograph them, but I did go out to check on them, and as soon as I lifted the grass they came to greet me, which was a surprise. There was no jumpiness, no fiestiness (even ‘Fiest’ was nice and relaxed). I will check on them again this morning because I noticed that at 9pm last night mamma had not fed them yet, which was strange.
The gentleman next door has bought himself a wonderful ride on mower… he loves to mow everybody’s grass, so today when I heard him driving around my front yard, of course I was concerned about the bunnies with the loud noise, and perhaps they would be scared enough to leave the nest and run right under the blades in their terror. I got a bowl, put one of Jesse’s sweaters in there, and took the bunnies from their nest. They stayed in the basement until the mowing was finished, then I returned them right away. All of them were sound asleep as I moved them back into their shallow hole in the ground.
We photographed them this evening at around 8pm, and I noticed that all the bunnies are very active and inquisitive, except for one little one that stays back and looks quite sad and forlorn. This particular one is one of the larger ones, so it’s not the runt of the litter. Looking back over the past couple of days’ photos, I can see that this little one was already looking like that then, I just hadn’t noticed it while all the bunnies were inactive. Hopefully it’ll be alright, we’ll know soon enough.
The bunnies, now that their eyes are open, are EXTRA bouncy, and are able to hop straight into the air at great heights in reaction to being startled. So to keep them safe during photographing I set them on a towel rather than run the risk of one of them jumping out of our hands suddenly and plunging to the ground. My husband came out today to help as we were in a great hurry - the afternoon had been rushed, dinner already cooked, it had been raining quite a bit, and it was quite late, so we wanted to make it a quick photo session. The bunnies however, were very aware that there was a ’strange’ person there. They are able to raise their ears into the air now, and have a lot more head control, they are beginning to walk now, rather than push themselves along like seals. Soon they will be venturing out of the nest by themselves and I’ll need to worry about predators.
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