Labor Day Weekend 2013: We went camping & returned with a pet bunny

 We were headed to Timothy Lake to go camping for Labor Day weekend.  I'm always looking for wildlife, and I spotted a super cute bunny under a car near a trail head.  We doubled back, parked, and went to investigate. 

 The bunny was super friendly.  Sunny offered dandelions and it hopped right over.  We realized it was no wild rabbit - this must be a pet.

 We checked the trail head message board for clues.  Several days before someone had posted a request that they saw an abandoned bunny and hoped someone could rescue it. This bunny didn't want to be rescued! It was happy in the woods with a million dandelions to eat.  But winter was coming, the foxes and forest critters were hungry, and we knew the bunny was living on borrowed time.

 Snare attempt #3 (out of 100)...the bunny is just eyeing us warily.  So we packed into the car and proceeded to the campsite...talking about the bunny all the way.  We decided we'd return each of the 3 days to try to catch and rescue it.

 We went back to the trail head and found the bunny each day. But no matter how much spinach and carrots and sweet talking we offered, she wouldn't come close. And we have limited experience with bunnies, so we weren't sure what to try. Max continued with his baited snares, and finally, on the way home (we stopped for 1 last attempt), he got the bunny by the ankle.  Ever heard a bunny scream? It sounds like a terrified woman.  That was traumatizing. But we got the bunny into the box (Max cut air holes into it) and cruising back home with a brand new pet. On our way home, we stopped at a pet shop to get bunny supplies!

 Here's the note posted @ the trail head asking for help for the abandoned bunny...and my notes that we adopted her and named her "Timothy" after Timothy Lake. And because we love gender confusion in this household.

Someone is thrilled to have a bunny. Check out the welcome committee.

Timothy was immediately at ease in our kitchen. We put up a couple of baby gates to keep her on the cork floor.  She was already litter box trained - so easy!

 This is Sun-Kitty's "What the hell?" expression about her new roomie.

But they get along fine.  After a few months, Sun-Kitty even started grooming the bunny. (Which probably made the bunny a carrier of "pasteurella" (lovely), but hey, that didn't come up on my caring for rabbits google research.)  The girls love each other's company, and the bunny tries to climb on the cat each morning while she eats her wet food.