Man vs. Nature

I just had a really odd Alaskan experience I thought I'd share.

So, the toilet in my cabin doesn't work. Luckily, there is a plethora of trees available as ready replacements for the crown jewel of indoor plumbing. Tonight as I found myself watering something of a willow variety I heard something bounding through the brush towards me. I looked up, expecting a frolicking bear cub (reported as nearby earlier in the day), and had several visions of how awkward it would be to be mauled by a mama bear while answering the call of nature. I quickly recognized that the source of the sound was nothing nearly as dangerous, it was only a baby rabbit about the size of a junior sized football. But it was running straight for me. The image imprinted on my mind was rather odd. The rabbit was running through a corridor trees that gave the same impression that one would have standing in the middle of a railroad track while watching a train approach. And apparently the rabbit was running on tracks too, because it it bounded towards me looking neither left nor right, not a care in the world. Just a rabbit out for his evening jog with the iPod blaring.

I kid you not, I could have soaked that little furball if I had wanted, he just about soaked himself, but I'm a kind soul and I let him pass. He pulled a u-turn around me and ran back into the woods. I don't think he ever recognized that I was anything but an odd looking tree.

I thought it was funny.

Eulogy

I knew it was a desperate cause in the beginning, but after five encouraging days I thought things might turn out to be OK. I got my hopes up. Then I went to work for eight days. All week long I was looking forward to seeing those five little bunnies when I got home. But in this I was sorely disappointed. Every one had died within 24 hours of my departure.

I must confess that I was pretty tore up about this and might have been a little grumpy and depressed the day that I got home.

It's strange what an experience like this does to you. I thought I was prepared for the worst case scenario. In fact, I fully expected it. If those bunnies had died on the first or second day, it could have been acceptable. But by the third day, those little hares would fight to pile into my hand when I reached into their box, they would constantly struggle to climb out (two little rascals actually found the weak point and exploited it to escape) and then promptly settle down and go to sleep when picked up. They were gaining weight and energy, they were inquisitive and trusting, and then they died. And I found out that I had not steeled myself enough. After five days of feeding them, after checking on them constantly, after holding them, after watching them learn how to hop . . . I guess I started to love them. Curse my soft heart!

It turns out that any sort of cow's milk product will kill rabbits. I discovered this on the third or forth day, but there was no way to change what I was feeding them (a weak mixture of powdered milk and a little sugar). There isn't a pet store anywhere nearby (Anchorage=4 hours), and no way to get the product that they needed (KMR-kitty milk replacement, or the puppy version . . . for future reference). So they died because of my ignorance and isolation, which is what I was most afraid of.

Snowshoe Hares

In the village where my father works, a crew was building a fire line when they discovered these little guys hiding underneath a brush pile (The brush had been piled there for less than four days, so these five snowshoe hares were certainly younger than that. My guess is they were either one or two days old when they were discovered). So my dad calls me up--it's my week off--and volunteers me to take care of them.

My family has often undertaken mercy missions like this in the past (ducks, hares, swallows, woodpeckers, and other birds), but none has ever been successful. The problem here is that we're too (soft/dumb/stubborn. . .your pick) to just let them die in the wild. . . we have to do everything we can to save them.

So I have a huge burden on my shoulders, as I am the latest in a long series of futile efforts to save wild animals. I don't want to fail.

When these guys were placed in my care, the first order of business was to get some food into them. I mixed some powdered milk and a little sugar and heated it over the oven so that it was warm, and then soaked a towel for them to suck on. . . didn't work. I raided my mom's vanity and nicked an eye-dropper, which worked somewhat better, but they still barely ate. I was very worried, because all they were doing was piling in the corner of the little box they were in and sleeping. Sometimes they looked dead.

Fortunately, I live in the Internet generation, so I did some research to figure out what these guys eat. I didn't find anything that I didn't already know, but I did stumble across a recording of a showshoe hare on the National Geographic website, which I played (If you don't know already, the main sound that these little bunnies make is a horrible screaming cry when they are in mortal danger). I was hoping for something a little different, but no, it was a rabbit screaming. My new little charges panicked, and I felt horrible, but it did demonstrate that they were still alive.

I did learn that they do most of their eating at night, so I left them alone for the rest of the day and tried to feed them later at night. I can't say that I was much more successful, but I did get them to eat a little.


They next couple days went a bit better. I've gotten them to eat more when I feed them, about as much as an eyedropper can suck up in one dip. Hopefully, they are getting the nutrients that growing bunnies need. I've tried boiling plants and bark to add to their milk, but I don't know if that is working or not.



Whatever the case, they seem to be perking up. A couple seem to have plenty of energy, and all of them can move fairly well (when I got them they were so weak/young/both that they trembled when they moved, but now they hop pretty nicely). One of them does seem a little weaker, but I still have hope for him. Two have one eye closed, I don't know why, snowshoe hares are born with fur and open eyes. . .


Anyway, if you have any experience or advise let me know. These bunnies need all the help they can get!