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I was sitting at home one Thursday evening when I got a call from my neighbor. She asked, "Are you missing a rabbit?" I told her no, and was completely confused because we never let Gravy go outside. She said that they had caught a rabbit that was hopping around in their yard. I told her I'd be right over, and headed out the door expecting to see a wild rabbit. When I got over there, she showed me a wire cage that had the cutest brown and tan rabbit in it. Well, I decided on the spot that I wanted him. I went back home and got Gravy's first cage (I had bought her a larger one) and brought it back with me. We were trying to figure out how to get him from one cage to the other and I thought I would just see if he was used to being handled. I reached in and stroked his head a little, then reached under and picked him up. He kicked a little, but nothing like Gravy did, so I lifted him out of the wire cage and put him in mine. I took him home and gave him some food and water and sat down to inspect him a little closer. The hair on his upper rear legs was gone and so was part of the hair on his belly. The rest of the hair underneath his body and tail was all matted together. On Saturday morning I took him to the vet. She said he appeared to be about 2 years old and the hair loss was caused by skin mites. She gave him the first of two shots and clipped off all of the matted hair. I was still in disbelief that anyone with a heart could have "released" this sweet bunny in the wild. I bought a large dog kennel to use for his cage and he seemed pretty happy with it. I kept feeding him good stuff and he started to put on a little weight. Two weeks later, I carried both bunnies to the vet and Biscuit got his second shot for mites. They both got their nails clipped and I discussed spaying and neutering with the vet. She wasn't comfortable doing the spay because she didn't have the equipment she needed to keep Gravy alive if she didn't do well under anesthesia. The vet referred both bunnies to the University of Georgia Small Animal Hospital and I took them in early in May. Biscuit came out of it like a champ and he was eating like he'd never seen food before. Gravy was in more pain, so it took a lot of coaxing to get her eating again, but she came through it fine too. At this point I moved both bunnies into the dining room and placed their cages and playpens side-by-side so that they could start getting used to each others' scent. |