Almost drowned...a bunny rescue!

Well my morning didn't start out as planned.   Moving a little slow because I am on week two of bronchitis, I went out to feed the horses a little later than usual.  As it turns out it is a good thing I was late because when I went to close the gate to Tucker's stall, I saw a bunny in the 100 gallon water trough and it didn't look alive.   

Quickly grabbing a manure fork I was able to scoop him out of the water.  With only his head above the water I see that he was alive, but barely holding on probably due to hypothermia.  Luckily his legs went between the tines of the fork so he didn't fall as we went in the barn where I was able to grab a towel and wrap him up.   Poor thing was half frozen.

Almost drowned bunny starting to dry off

Once inside the towel, I started to rub him to dry him off and get circulation moving again.  It didn't take long before this little one relaxed and just let me dry him off.  Now what!   I have to feed the horses.    So I did. Here I am with bundled up bunny in one hand, driving the Ranger (UTV) and putting hay in all the feeders with the other hand.   Tucker and Max each get a couple scoops of feed in the morning and neither seemed concerned with the furry face sticking out of the towel as long as they got their breakfast. 

Into the house with bunny in hand, I got a dry baby blanket and topped that with an addition wrap for warmth. It had been about 45 minutes, but his ears and feet were still cold and its coat still a little damp.  So we sat in the recliner in front of the heater and before long cat comes over to see what is in my lap.  I can tell you he was disappointed when he realized the bunny wasn't for him...lol!   

Bundled up in a baby blanket wrapped inside another for warmth.

How trusting this little bundle was.  I can only hope he knew I was trying to help him.  We sat for another half hour and it had warmed up enough outside I felt it was ok to put him back where his buddies would find him.  So out to the hay barn we went.   I placed the burrito blanked bunny in the sun next to a hay bale and figured once he had warmed up enough, he would venture out of the warmth of the bundle.   

Tucked in the sunlight hay for warmth he can run free when ready

It didn't dawn on me before that these animals didn't have water to drink.  It has been weeks since it snowed and without tank heaters our troughs would freeze at night.   Their thirst was obvious when I noticed another bunny was by a blue bucket beneath the water faucet, but the contents were frozen.  How a bunny jumped all the way into a 100 gallon water trough is hard to figure out, but from now on, there will be small buckets of water out there for the bunnies so this won't happen again.   I am not really fond of the bunnies, though cute, they can attract coyotes and wild dogs, but they are God's creatures and if they need to be rescued too, that is what I am gonna do!

Seems we are kicking the new year off with rescues already.    I hope you had a nice holiday season and wish you all the best in 2014.   Wishing everyone a happy and healthy new year!  

Christine