Very pretty... what will you do with her next?
well that is something we have pondered on continuously.
As you can see because of having to handle her frequently from the age of Day 1 of her life she is very trusting of the humans she knows -
As our long term plan had been release, she is not as 'domesticated' as we might have made her - we kept her in a separate bedroom for the first 6 weeks with only us seeing her to feed etc. In retrospect we might have done that differently.
At present she has free range of the top of the house (2 LARGE bedrooms and hall and stairs) and also of the living room (again LARGE).
She makes full use of these at night (hares are nocturnal basically) and in parts of the day.
At night when she is not running around the house she sleeps on our bed (on my partners side) by choice.
We also take her out to a run with covered area on a regular basis and she sits and looks at the world go by.
When she is out (and indeed when she is in) she shows no desire to escape from the areas she is in - and does not 'pace' or scrabble etc etc
On days she is outside at c6pm she will go and sit in her carry crate to wait to be brought in again (she has plenty of other shelter to sit in).
As you can see by this lengthy explanation considering her future is not simple . . . she seems happy with us but I am very well aware of the 'wild animals should be wild' viewpoint.
We are currently in the very final throes of finishing our rabbit proof run (7-8ft high meshed) which is c11m by 12m (34 by 37 ft) and when this is finished we will try her in that running free (the rabbits take turns in groups so she can have a turn on her own) and see if she still comes back to her carry box at dusk.
She KNOWS what the carry box means - she is not just using it as shelter as she has lots of other shelters in her present outside small run - and so returning to it is the choice to return to us and the house. She walks into it and lays there and stays there when partner comes to put the front on to carry her back into house.
But also in our minds is the fact we are pretty certain she is a girl (3 months old now and no visible testicles and seems to have same genital shape as female rabbits) so hormones etc may have an impact next spring if she is still with us.
I have asked several people and rescues about the situation and get (as you would expect) varied responses and also stories of other hares and what happened to them - some successful some not - some released some not. Not all releases are successes not all non releases are successes.
I would say had she come to us at a week old, or when the weather was less freezing, then release would have been the total and achievable aim, but 1 day old is very different and the weather also meant she was kept indoors.
For now she seems happy and she is alive.
Sorry for such a long answer.
PS we do also have 3 wildie rabbits who are with us - and they have also adapted to life with us after being orphans - they love the new run area but again run back into their 'chalet' home at feed time or when they feel threatened (bird of prey flying over or stranger around etc) or when they just want a lay down etc
