Outside our basement kiln room, is a window well--about 5' deep, topped off by a lattice work of cedar 2x4s. (The window well has been featured in several previous postings, including Toad in a Hole and Monster Plants.) This morning, while transferring a load of towels from the washing machine to the dryer, with a straight line view out the window in the kiln room (see The Kiln Room for fuller description), I noted a bunny hunkered down in the middle of the window well. The poor bunny had no chance of escaping on its own, so I went out the window to gather it up. Of course, the bunny could, and did, jump to the top of the window well; but, navigating through the gaps between cedar 2x4s was beyond its escape attempts.
I scrambled around in the window well trying to throw a light-weight cloth over the bunny. Before I could trap the bunny, it hopped into the (closed off by doors) kiln room and darted about hither, thither, and yon. Eventually, the bunny trapped itself between a wall and some cannisters of glass pieces (from glass mosaic/concrete work, as explained at the above-linked The Kiln Room posting), allowing me to gather it up, wrap it in the cloth, and take it back to the edge of our woods. There, I set the cloth on the ground, uncovered the bunny, and walked away. Eventually the bunny got up the nerve to leave its warm little nest of cloth and hopped away into its natural habitat. This was one exciting day for one young bunny! It reminded me of years ago.
Years ago, one of our cats brought a small bunny into our previous home. Of course, the moment that the cat laid the bunny at my feet, the bunny scambled away, first hiding behind the tall bookcases in the living room, then tumbling downstairs to the basement. Being a young bunny, it could not get back up the stairs and became easy prey for me to scoop up. One young bunny became a trap-and-release "victim".
By the way: We are having a lovely day. The skies are sunny, with cloud strata off to the south and west, and a breeze of 5-10 miles/hour. I just came in from an invigorating bike (bicycle) ride.
Poor bunnies! And nice you for rescuing them!
Snowing like you-know-what here. I just checked out the weather and decided I'm not going to the symphony tonight. I am disappointed but I don't feel well enough to get dressed up and risk getting stuck.
Posted by: Kay Dennison | December 06, 2008 at 05:01 PM
Kay--Better you should be at home, wishing you were at the symphony, than that you should be somewhere away from home, wishing you were at home. We get smarter as we get older, don't we?
Posted by: Cop Car | December 06, 2008 at 07:10 PM
Had a smile on my face the whole time I was reading this, in fact it's still there. Now I'm off to click on your links.
Posted by: janeywan | December 06, 2008 at 10:41 PM
What a cute story, except that last part. Yeah, sure, it was sunny here for long enough to get the temp from 14 to about 30. Then it clouded over and we got snow.
Posted by: bogie | December 07, 2008 at 05:57 AM
Lovely story CopCar. And so much better to be chasing bunnies your puss brings in rather than chasing mice Nimrod the Mighty Hunter has let go indoors (grin).
I envy you your weather. Winter came early to the UK. we've had winter weather for the past month and it's cold, damp and often freezing.
Posted by: Adele Humphreys | December 09, 2008 at 02:25 PM
Adele--Winter arrived, early this morning. From 65 degrees Farenheit, yesterday, within 18 hours the temperature fell to 24 degrees. We've been having high, gusty, swirly winds (mostly from the East but shifting about a lot) with freezing rain and snow. Our driveway and street are bumpy sheets of ice. With Hunky Husband in Texas, I've only ventured outside to fetch the newpaper, the mail, to put the trash cart out and gather it in, and to put feed out for the birds and critters (and plug in a second heated watering pan for the birds). Fortunately, I have enough milk on hand to sustain me in making snow ice cream for a day or two.
Perhaps our weather thinks that it must keep up with yours!
Posted by: Cop Car | December 09, 2008 at 03:27 PM
Quite possible. Staying indoors in the warm sounds a very good idea.
Posted by: Adele Humphreys | December 10, 2008 at 01:21 PM
I don't mind the cold; but, it's an adventure, on ice, just gathering in the newspaper and mail. I didn't need to be adding to the traffic nightmares. (I find it aggravating the number of drivers who think that they just must be out and about in such conditions--when there is no sane reason for their contributing to the mess.) The Wichita Police Dept declared emergency conditions because of the number of vehicle wrecks that were occurring. (In emergency conditions, drivers involved in a minor wreck--vehicles are drivable and no one is injured--may just exchange names and insurance info, waiting for a day or two to report the incident to the police. In normal conditions, the drivers must await the arrival of a police officer before they may leave the scene.)
By now, the major streets are clear, and our own street has only patchy ice; but, our driveway has an inch of ice on it. I've quit trying to chop away ice, anymore. A broken hip from falling on the ice, I don't need.
BTW: Interesting on your "...Post Code Lottery".
Posted by: Cop Car | December 11, 2008 at 08:03 AM