The Bunny Rescue Week at the Lazy Vegan

It's been a crazy past two weeks here at the Lazy Vegan - so busy that we skipped last week's post. But with good reason:  we were in the midst of trying to rescue some pet rabbits that somebody dumped in the big Laguna park - really a wild wetland of hundreds of acres.  Three different bunnies were sighted over the past two weeks and after many attempts and a full-fledged rescue involving a large corral and nine people, we managed to catch one! And, of course, he's now temporarily living the spoiled life at the Lazy Vegan while he awaits his neuter appointment next week.  He is a total love bug and I'm so happy we were able to save him but feel terrible about the bunnies that got away - especially the beautiful black one that put on a show of binkies one evening.  Still holding out hope that they're managing to survive, but there have been no new sightings for several days - despite leaving out food and looking in the morning and evening. I can't imagine how anyone would think it is o.k. to dump domestic rabbits - but it sadly happens all too often.

My photos got woefully out of order!  Here is foster bun, dubbed "Louie" while he resides at the Lazy Vegan - wasting no time making friends with a stuffie! (Not Wasabi's stuffie but an exact new replica).

He is a tiny but mighty little guy.

A little video of him enjoying his playground:

At first the resident buns didn't seem to notice - but they soon caught on and would look for Louie through the "maximum security" double x-pen gates!  Louie has a case of the mites that he's being treated for and, of course, rabbits don't just automatically get along!

We discovered that he is an escape artist at night when put in his x-pen (he likes his freedom, which he gets when we are home to supervise) - so I had to get a roof top for his area!

Just an adorable and very adoptable little guy!

I was nervous about the presence of another rabbit - especially an unaltered male - causing problems with the bond that Wasabi and Rufus have and it did cause some initial spats!

But then they were back to snuggling.

And flopping.

And exploring!

At first Louie was understandably very skittish.

Scenes from one evening early in the rescue process.

Snap helped so much!  She was always the one to first spot a bunny, hence we nicknamed her "Hawkeye"!

The beautiful Laguna - no place for a pet rabbit.

This little guy is hopefully still out there somewhere.  He put on quite a show one evening but there were only two of us and we didn't attempt to catch him.  Now I wish we had.

Little video of the black bunny, below:

Back to little Louie - I'll take him to be neutered on Tuesday.

Soon he was flopping over and even "chattering" - a sign of contentment - when he was petted!

More scenes from the week plus long rescue - one evening a corral was set up and a bunny (later named Louie) explored the perimeter and then hopped off.

How rabbit start the day!

More of Louie exploring his bunny playground (also known as our entry hall!).

The big buns out in the kitchen!

The long bridge that somebody had to walk across to dump these poor bunnies.

Relaxing in the kitchen.

Another rescue night!  We all had our "positions" and there was a lot of sitting and waiting.

And then leaving at nightfall.

Until finally, one morning there was success!  After a malfunction of the corral (part of the x-pen fell over when the gate was swung shut by a rope after the bunny hopped in), the bunny came back and we got him!

So great!!!!

Then we were back that very night to try to get the other bunny.

Sharing is caring!

Really, all times we went out there have blended together - this was most definitely a group effort!

Rufus seems the most affected by the foster bun being around.  He went around like crazy, "chinning" everything in sight.

Loaded up for a rabbit rescue!  I left out a salad with banana in the same meadow every evening.

Picking up dear Rufus.

And dear little foster bun.

Breakfast with bunnies!

This was before we moved foster bun's area to a different location - now there are two gates dividing all the bunnies - Rufus was very interested in saying hello!

First flop out.

Rufus needed a lot of reassuring!

The weekly pose with Paco!

Donkeys didn't get as much attention this past week but they're still happy boys!

The return of the bobcat video, below!