I rescued bunnies from a burrow. been neutered ok 8-)

I had a call from pet welfare as they were full, about some bunnies living in a burrow in Stafford, to be fair I wasn't suppose to be taking in any more rescue at the minute until I found homes for the ones that I've got in, (Duck, Sprout, Delilah and Doris), but the lady said they'd not been being fed (but that turned out to be not strictly true) and just living wild in a back garden.

I rang the person and it was their daughters house, it was a really sad story and I did feel sorry for the parents. The lass is only 23 and she'd tried to kill herself three weeks ago, and her children were with her. The girl was no longer living at the house, she was in a "safe house", and they only just managed to evict her boyfriend, who was apparently scum and the reason for their daughters demise. Her dad is looking after the kids and trying to sort her house out. When he got in there was a dog (belonged to the boyf) that had been locked in the house for days/weeks and was starving and obviously messed all over the house. Then he found his daughters rabs which just live wild in the garden.

There had been four but two had been killed by mink (apparently), he'd been coming down daily and giving them a bit of veg, because he felt sorry for them. There was a doe and buck, I asked if there was babies and he said there was once but they'd gone away. I don't know if they'd been eaten by a fox or killed by mink or what had happened.

They'd dug themselves a burrow behind the shed and I was planning on trying to get down it to see if there were any babies, but it was totally inaccessible, there was nothing I could do. The burrow was probably miles long as they'd been living wild for two years.

We managed to catch the boy bun, but the girl disappeared down the burrow and in the end I thought I was going to have to leave the girl and come back (as the bloke had to go and needed to lock up), as she wouldn't come out. Just has the bloke said we would have to call it a day she come out, it was a mad rush to block around the shed so she couldn't get back and catch her, which we did. I feel truly awful as if there were babies there was no way I could get them and teh house was going now his daughter wasn't there and it was derelict.

Poor Bryn had plans for yesterday but he had to finish off my shed, to a reasonable fashion so they could live in there. It's by no means ideal for them, it is a proper bodge a job home for them, in fact I feel terrible locking up wild bunnies, but they didn't seem too bad. Bryn has particiand the middle so one could go either side until neutered and there is a little hutch each side which we've left open so they've got a bit of a bed box to keep warm in, as soon as they're neutered I I'll remove the partician. I could do with going to the vets tonight to get them checked over, it was dark when I finally got home l;ast night so I didn't want to stress them out by prodding them and poking them, but Carys is off sick so it's going to be impossible to get out of work.

I spent half an hour with them before work this morning and they're not too bad, they let me stoke their head and didn't lunge or growl. I've a couple of pics, I'll stick them up when I get them off my camera, I've not seen them yet so don't know if they're any good. It was just really dark when I got them back.

Once they're ready for a new home they'll have to go somewhere really special with lots of space to run around as they've spend their life just doing their own thing in the garden.

Please keep everything crossed that the doe is not pregnant, she's very thin, but I'll know more after the check up.

Oh that is so sad ....hope theyre ok ....and hope there were no babies

Angie

:shock: :shock:

I hope the Buns will now be OK. What a very sad story for everyone/Bun...
At least the 2 Buns are in a safe house now too. Well done Tree and Bryn :thumb:

Janex

Thanks Jane and Angie

I've got some pics here but they're not too good, I tried to leave them alone last night and let them settle in. I've called them Daddy and Chips

you can't see them well, but you'll get and idea on what they look like.

Daddy







Chips

That's so sad. Well done for getting them and I hope everything turns out ok for them.

Aww Massive Well Done Tree & Bryn!! Lovely looking bunsters, Sounds like you've got off quite lucky .. We looked into adopting this bunster that'd lived wild before we got Boo, and the lady said he scaled 8ft fences, escaped from every hutch he'd been in and went crazy when he saw people .. These two sound great compared to that :lol: X

Well done, for getting these to safety. I do hope that there is no babies to come along. Can I send a big hug to Bryn for sorting out the shed to provide them a safe haven.

Well done Tree and Bryn. Must admit I was expecting "wild" colouring rabbits... know it begins with a but I'm having a senior moment

Good luck with them

Aww Tree Xx thats sucha asad story XX But well done you for getting them out and they look lovely xx

well done you for helping them poor babies xx

OMG poor buns Well done xx

Oh my goodness what a sad story
Well done for rescuing those buns
They look lovely...
Feel sorry for the owner but still no excuse for letting those buns loose & fend for themselves, not getting into that though don't know the full story...
I have a sad story myself today so feel very angry the way some people treat animals.. I will post the story later

Karen x

Well done Tree and Bryn - I'm so glad that you where able to get them out. They are lovely buns and will revert back to being domesticated now that you have them.
They are safe and that is wonderful for them - thank you

Well done

Very well done for catching them Tree,

You've done a fantastic job under very difficult circumstances - two buns would would have been eaten are now safe!!

Well done again!!

From Sue

What a sad story. Well done Tree for getting them out of there and Bryn. They look lovely bunnies.

Well done for rescuing them Tree. I had realized they were domestic rabbits who had lived wild. Lovely looking bunnies.

Poor buns

We were called out to a similar situation but the owner wasn't sure if there were babies. When we'd caught all the buns which were running about in the garden, we checked them all and found that one of them had milk in her teats, we asked the owner if there had been any sign of babies and she said no. We had a hunt around the garden and found a burrow under a huge shed, we got a torch and shone it under, and sure enough there were babies there, there were also loads of bluebottles zooming in and out the burrow. We tried to dig them out but they were too far under the shed and we could do nothing without destroying the whole shed so we had to leave the mum in the hope that she would keep looking after them and asked the owner to give us a call when the babies were out and about.

In the meantime, we took the other buns home and found they were crawling with rabbit fleas (not cat or dog ones).

We got a call from her two weeks later saying that there was no sign of the babies at all, so we went back for another look. No sign of any activity at all in the burrow and the mum had stopped going into it.

We came to the conclusion that the babies had died due to overload of fleas making them anaemic, as all the fleas had nobun else to infest any more.

All in all, a very sad situation but at least we managed to save the one's we did. We've rehomed them all now except Pops.

You did your best Tree, good luck with these two :thumb:

Oh and PS, check them for fleas :shock:

glad you mananged to catch them both Tree! Well done

Well done Tree 8)

I had 13 brought to me that had been abandoned in garden last year. They were perfectly happy friendly buns, and most of them have found new homes. Two just went yesterday. I only have one and the babies that were born here left. At least living free they have grass to eat and not a dreadful mix so they should be healthy - the ones that survived that is :?

Awww Tree what a sad story.

Bless you and Bryn for rescuing them.

They will now finally get the love and attention they deserve xxx