Wildlife Woes

[Stacy]

Do you ever wish for just one moment that you didn't have dogs? I mean, I love the dogs like they're my kids. I wouldn't be able to survive life without dogs. Because of that I think sometimes I forget that they aren't in fact little children in fur suits. But then they do something that makes me remember...

 

My love of animals extends to all my backyard friends. I’m the critter girl.

Sometimes the squirrels drive me nuts when they dig up my flowers. But they’re so cute when they play together. They tease the dogs and they always make me laugh when they yell at us. I know there are a few chipmunks around here, though I rarely see them, but the rabbits seem half tame. They let me walk right up to them before they run off. I want the girls to love the furries they share the yard with, but instead they love to eat them. When I chose doodles prey drive was not one of the boxes I was trying to check off.

 

In the last week Ava came to the door with a squirrel tail hanging out of her mouth like it was a literal toy. Now, that squirrel wasn’t freshly dead. So I think it died of other causes and Ava just found it. (That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.) Then it stormed last week and Katie found a baby bird that she snuck into the house and proudly took to my bed. And tonight is the worst. The absolute worst.

 

Here it is, midnight. I just got home from work. It was a busy evening. I fed the girls and we went outside. I was minding my own business scrolling through facebook on the porch when I hear this… crying. It didn’t register for a second, but then I realized, oh no the girls have something. The next thing you know I’m running around the backyard barefoot, by the light of my cellphone flashlight screaming like a lunatic. I can only imagine that my neighbors think I’m insane.

 

I see Ava drop something and I called her to come with me, and then I found Katie and I saw another one. And I’m begging them to come back inside with me. They were actually pretty cooperative considering how excited they were with their find.

 

I got them into the screen porch and was about to go look for the problem when I realize that the crying is now coming from inside with the dogs. I couldn’t see anything, but it only took a second to figure out that the crying was coming from inside Ava’s mouth. I pulled her mouth open and a baby bunny fell out.

 

A teeny tiny baby bunny that was still naked. It nuzzled into my hand and shirt like I was it’s mommy. I’m pretty sure that I’m in love with this bunny and want it to have a spot in the bed with the dogs. It was pretty active and it didn’t have any visible injuries. I made the girls stay inside while I’m out searching the backyard – again, by cellphone light. I managed to find the nest, and the second baby bunny that didn’t fare as well. I took that one out and put the one that seemed okay back into the nest. It burrowed back in. I didn’t see more, but maybe there were siblings in there for it to cuddle with – I didn’t want to disturb them if they were there. It’s like Operation Wildlife over here. I think there should be a version of 911 for animals. I would have called it an ambulance. But since there isn’t, I hope I did the right thing. I hope the mommy comes back. I wanted to keep it, but I’m pretty sure I am ill equipped to keep a newborn bunny alive.

 

Now the dilemma is that the dogs know they’re there. How am I going to ever keep them away from that nest? And why on earth would the bunny pick my yard to have her babies? My nextdoor neighbor has a perfectly good yard and no pets to go on a bunny killing spree. I feel like I’m harboring two felons. Do I need to turn them in for assault? I keep telling them how naughty they are, but I’m pretty sure they think I’m telling them that they’re pretty.

 

I accept the dogs for who they are. I know these are the things that dogs do (but for the record, Papillons do not do things like this!) I just wish someone would explain to them that they are supposed to act more like little furry people and less like murdering heathens. I’m not sure how much backyard homicide I can take!!

Does anyone else have this issue? Better yet, has anyone else solved this issue? I feel like they need a class in loving their neighbors. I also wonder if we had a bunny of our own that the dogs would understand that it was part of the family and they couldn’t hurt it. Because now I really want a bunny to join our family!

 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Well, I don't think it's going to make you feel any better if I tell you that JD has found several rabbit'es nests, both in my yard and on walks, and has even had a couple of baby bunnies in his mouth at different times, and has dropped them on command, none the worse for the ordeal. (Well, at least physically. Maybe they were scarred for life, I'll never know.) But JD is the canine reincarnation of Mahatma Gandhi. :) I'm certain his Labrador ancestors were dying of embarrassment up at the Bridge. 

They're hunting dogs, lol. Labs, Goldens, even Standard Poodles, all were bred for hunting and field work. The fact that our dogs are here today to drive us crazy is proof that their ancestors were good at what they were expected to do. :)

And rabbits are universal prey. Seriously. Everything eats them. Birds, reptiles, and just about every kind of carnivorous mammal there is, including people. They breed so much because only 10% of the babies survive to adulthood, and you can be certain that the other 90% aren't all killed by dogs. I know they're cute, but they are among the stupidest animals in existence, and they have no defense mechanisms. You know how they "protect" themselves from predators? They freeze in place. That's it. Great system, very effective. "Maybe if I just hold real still, that big dog won't see me sitting here 5 feet away from him." Those rabbits who let you walk right up to them aren't half tame, they're stupid. Everything else runs away, flies away, climbs a tree, snarls, growls, sprays, hisses, etc. Only rabbits just sit there. And I ask you, what mother in all of the animal kingdom puts her nest (filled with her babies) right in the center of an open lawn, in a yard where surely she can see and smell the fact that there are dogs there? Why not under at least under a bush, or behind a bush, or in the dogless neighbor's yard? Because they're dumb, and Darwin was right. 

What you can do about it is not let the dogs out in the yard alone or off leash until the dumb little bunnies leave the nest, if they manage to live that long. I'm telling you, baby rabbits die from nothing.  I had one nest right outside my backdoor...that mother rabbit must have won the dumb prize in parenting class. I watched over it and kept JD away from it for maybe 2 weeks, after which I removed 7 dead little bunnies, untouched and intact but dead for no apparent reason. Maybe their dumb mother failed at "I hope that coyote doesn't see me" one night. 

Our first nest, JD found. I put the unharmed baby back in the nest, consulted the internet, put all the straw and grass and fur back as I found it, and kept him away from it the next few weeks. I was rewarded for my efforts one morning when I looked out my window and saw 4 adorable tiny bunnies out in my yard nibbling at grass. I kept JD out of the yard that whole day, taking him out on leash in the front and walking him. Throughout the day, I caught glimpses of them here and there in the yard. The next morning, one of them was lying dead in the grass outside the nest, and the other 3 were dead in the nest. All were perfectly intact. To this day, I have no idea what killed them. Heart attacks? Indigestion? 

I still keep JD away from rabbits' nests when I can, but mostly so that he won't get some parasite from them. Plus, I know you can't catch stupid, but why take a chance?

[Stacy]

I once heard that baby rabbits die of fright. Poor little guys. But you're right, they're not very smart. I have seen what I assume is the mama in the yard dozens of times and dogs chase her every time. She escapes underneath. Then she has babies one foot inside this fence instead of one foot on the other side. 

This morning at 6 when I was in that mostly asleep stupor, but the dogs are bouncing off my head wanting to go out I came to the brilliant decision that I could go out with them and if I took treats they would leave the nest alone. You can imagine how well that worked. I was holding the treats and Ava was holding the baby bunny in her mouth. I put it back again, but I don't see this ending well. Then I found the one I thought I saved last night dead in the middle of the yard. Apparently there were at least 3 involved in all of that excitement. Part of me really wants them to live. The other part of me is content as long as the girls don't ingest them. 

JD is truly an angel in a dog suit. I was kind of impressed that that bunny came out of Ava's mouth alive and unharmed. That's a pretty soft mouth. It came out of the jaws of death and lived to tell about it! At least for another day. I'm really glad there weren't bunny guts everywhere. It's a good thing these dogs are really cute. All this homicide really stresses me out! Can't we all just get along?

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

You have to think of it not as homicide, but as improving the rabbit's gene pool.

[Stacy]

You're so right. Natural selection. On one side of me there's an empty lot. On the other side there are no dogs or cats. So where would you have your babies? Right in there with the dogs. The smarts are not strong witht that one!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Amen.

[Haley, Yeti, and Phin]

I had to laugh last night as I was walking Yeti, I saw a huge bunny. It seriously just froze and was looking at me the whole time we walked by. Yeti never noticed him but I kept checking over my shoulder to see if he finally moved. It felt safe enough to move again after we crossed the street and were onto the next block lol.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

OMD! The "freezing in place" worked! This time, LOL.

[Stacy]

Maybe that behavior evolved from when t-rex couldn't see you if you didn't move. Dinosaur survival!

[Haley, Yeti, and Phin]

hahahaha i died laughing!!

[Stacy]

I'm glad Yeti didn't eat the bunny. I've had dogs for 18 years and this is the first time I've had to deal with mammal murder. I can't even imagine a dog with real prey drive. Saving the backyard critters is exhausting!

[Haley, Yeti, and Phin]

We are trying really hard to get him to pay no attention to birds, rabbits, squirrels ect. It works most of the time but every once in a while he goes into hunter yeti mode. Luckily for us, his prey drive isn't very good :p

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

PS: Did I mention rabbits eat your flowers? Especially dianthus, which are my favorites. Cute isn't everything, I would rather have the squirrels.