This Post from last year chronicled the discovery of a black rabbit behind the hen house in the patch of woods that borders our property on the south side. Last weekend something else happened. I was doing my morning chores as usual, feeding goats and cows, scattering chicken scratch for the hens to eat and opening the laying boxes so that the hens can lay eggs in the fresh hay. We close the boxes every night because if you don't, the hens will roost on the laying boxes and will poop in the hay. That makes for dirty eggs!
Part of my daily routine while doing chores is to let our Great Pyrenees, Belle, run free in the pasture and around the barn. She has a real good time. Well, when I opened the hen house and began to open the nesting boxes, I was met with a surprise. The black rabbit was in the hen house. It ran quickly between my legs and before I could say Bugs Bunny, it was running out of the hen and into the barn area.
With Belle running around, this presented a big problem. There is nothing Belle would like better for breakfast that a fresh rabbit. I closed the gate to keep Belle out of the barn area and ran back to the house and got the net we use when we go crabbing. Black Bunny was fast, but no match for my crab net. I had the bunny captured. I inspected and found the bunny was a female. I took her inside and let Russ hold her.
Once the boys and Tricia got to see our new friend, I took her back to the barn and told her she needs to keep her distance from Belle. I gently dropped her over the fence and continued my morning chores. Before I headed back in to eat breakfast, I looked out over the fence to check on the black bunny.
I did a double take... literally. I saw the black bunny. But I also saw another one. A white rabbit! Oh man. These rabbits need to be careful. If you look at the barbed wire fence in the photo below, you can see some white hair. That's Belle's hair. She jumps OVER the fence routinely to explore.
So this is an odd occurrence indeed. We do have cottontail rabbits around. Lots of them. We see them routinely. But not these. These rabbits are most definitely domesticated rabbits that either got loose or were turned loose. I've seen the black one for over a month now. And now a white one shows up, too!
Pink eyes. Pink ears. Cute. Part of me wants to catch them both with my crabbing net and put them in a rabbit cage and raise them. Maybe they'd have babies and raise a family. But the other part of me wants them to be free and let them raise a family in the wild.
I had already lost sight of the black rabbit, but the white rabbit was easier to see as it jumped off into the woods. It is highly visible with its bright white coat.
That's what worries me about the safety of the rabbit. The black one can blend in in the dark understory of the woods. The white one has a big target on its back. Be very careful, rabbits. There are lots of predators that would like to catch you.
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