Our Little Peter Cottontails

So Sunday night we had a little surprise - bunny babies!  Apparently Jeremy and Olivia were outside playing when the next thing Jeremy knows he hears a "squeak" and a skirmish and realizes that Jake has obviously caught something.  Olivia starts crying, Jeremy starts chasing Jake, and in the ensuing chaos Jeremy discovers that Jake has found a rabbit's nest in Olivia's swingset and caught a baby rabbit!  Luckily, Mr. Cottontail survived.  The rabbits are clearly only days old - they have no fur, their eyes aren't open and they are as small as a mouse.  We couldn't leave them to the mercy of Jake and Maggie, who are bred to hunt out rodents, so we had to figure out something quick.  So Jeremy made a late night trip to Lowes for some wiring and we rigged up a shelter for them just as the sun was setting.  We managed to get the baby rabbit that Jake caught back into the nest, but we were very worried its mother would not come back.  So Jeremy did some research and ended up sitting two toothpicks on top of the nest and if they moved overnight, then we had a pretty good indication that the mother was returning.  I checked this morning and they had moved - but our little baby was still outside the nest squirming around.  I finally managed to get him back in the hole today with his brothers and sisters (I have no idea how many are there), but not without alerting Maggie.  Maggie has since been pacing the floors, whining to go outside.  The research we have done suggests it will take a month for the rabbits to reach maturity - I am not sure we can protect them that long...

Our attempt to protect the babies while still 

giving the mother access (thanks for the idea Dad)

I wish you could see Mr. Cottontail's ears - 

they are the tiniest things you have ever seen!