She told me as I was leaving that there was a litter of baby rabbits in the front yard underneath the tree. Oh, I had to peek!! She told me she didnt want them there and wanted to get rid of them.
My mothers neighborhood is a rather well to do, upper class neighborhood. Neighbors have beautiful yards with lovely flowers and bushes, and we all know what rabbits do to those kinds of things. I had heard how the neighborhood was swarmed with rabbits, apparently wonderful rabbit habitat as there is a field on one side of the road behind the houses, and a small field and woods on the other side.
I can indeed atest to neighbors 'getting rid' of them by several weeks later looking for a nest across the street from mothers that my stepfather had watched a rabbit dig out and have her babies in the day before. All that was to be found was a bit of fur from the nest, with the flower bed that the nest had been made in, being freshly weeded and filled in with fresh dirt.
I took these four babies home with me not fully aware of how difficult it can be to raise a baby cottontail, as they are one of the hardest wild animals to care for, due to their complex gut systems, and nature of being stressed and frightened so easily.
My parents had raised 4 babies when I was young, all of them growing into lovely adults to be set free, so how hard could it be I thought??? Well let me tell you......
