GRANDMA NELL'S STORY TIME

He was grinning at me and said, "Guess what I brought you dear?"

Now, you know what size a baseball cap is, so what could he have in it?

I thought for a moment and then asked, "You found a hen's nest and it's full of eggs, isn't it ?"

He smiled more and said, "NO. Not even close! Guess again."

Now this was getting tough to figure out. I thought for a minute and said, "You found my favorite honey comb mushrooms that grow in the bush where you are working. That's it, isn't it?"

He just laughed and said, "You might as well give up."

"Okay. I give up! Let me see."

He handed me the cap. Inside were five baby bunnies! Imagine how little they were to fit all five in a baseball cap!

I said, "Why did you bring me these poor little rabbits? They are much to small to leave their mother."

My husband told me that he had seen the mother rabbit every day. She hopped along, right near the willow bush, just off to the side of the trail through the pasture. Today as he passed, he saw a coyote catch the mother Rabbit! He guessed she had babies to feed too. So he couldn't leave the babies to starve, and hunted until he found them.

Now what was I going to do with these tiny rabbits?

I stared at the little fur balls. They were so cute! Their mixture of light brown, dark brown and a few black hairs, made them look like a hatful of dead grass. But they wiggled their little pink noses and you knew they sure weren't grass! They had such long ears I knew they were baby Jack rabbits.

I offered them a lettuce leaf, but they were to small to eat yet.

"What will we feed them?" I said to my husband.

Then I had an idea! I said to my oldest daughter, "Do you know where the little doll bottle is that came with your wettums doll at Christmas time?"

She replied,"Yes Mom, I know right where it is."

She scurried off to the toy box and quickly returned with the tiny bottle. We warmed some milk and began to feed the bunnies. After a few sips of milk they weren't even afraid of us any more.

Now this feeding bunnies went on for around a week. About every hour or two they were ready for another bottle. I kept offering them lettuce and soon they could nibble ever so little bites. Then I taught them how to drink out of a saucer.

Did you ever see a bunny drink out of a saucer? Well, in case you didn't, I'll tell you how they do it.

Rabbits drink like kittens. They curl the end of their little pink tongue into a tiny ladle and lap the milk into their mouth that way. In a few days the baby rabbits could all drink from the saucer. Thank goodness! The big job was finished.

We kept the rabbits in a box on the kitchen floor with a litter box in one corner. Did you know that a wild rabbit is easier to litter train than most kittens and puppies?

The children picked the rabbits fresh dandelion leaves and blossoms, tender silver pigweeds and lots of lettuce!

Now everything was going fine until the rabbits grew big enough to jump out of the box!

Oh well, I decided, I might as well give in and let them run loose in the house. After all, they were trained so they wouldn't make a mess.

I learned that rabbits play any time - but especially at night. They played games just like school children. Their favorites seemed to be hide and seek, or best of all, follow the leader!

One bunny would take off running and all the rest would follow. Wherever the first bunny went, each in turn went the same place. If rabbit number one jumped over a toy on the floor, so did bunny 2, 3, 4, and 5. It was so much fun to watch them!

In a short time they could jump onto the chesterfield. If you sat there, they would run over your knees just like another pillow. Down they would jump and take off for another room in the house! Then out they would come again, lickety split, and back to their bowl for a sip of milk.

Up until now, we had so much fun with the bunnies and we learned a lot too. We found out how they played and what they liked best to eat. We learned how soft their fur was and how they could put their ears so flat you couldn't hardly see that they had any ears at all!

BUT, I told you when I first saw the bunnies I knew they were Jack rabbits. They belong to the hare family, and they grow bigger than bush rabbits and have really long, powerful hind legs. This is why the trouble started. They could now jump up on the window sill and eat my favorite house plant.

My Fushia! It didn't have a chance against these rabbits. I put the plant up higher on a shelf to keep it safe. BUT now when I was setting the table they would jump on it too!

The rabbits especially liked to jump up and have some supper salad. I guess it tasted better on the table. Another favorite thing for the bunnies was my fresh buns! I think they could smell them.

I said, "Thats it !!!! I don't mind feeding rabbits. I don't mind stepping over rabbits on the floor. BUT I am not going to eat off the same table with rabbits. They have to go!"

So I picked them all up and carried them out to a big grove of trees, where there were dandelions and clover and all kinds of good things for rabbits to eat. And there were lots and lots of secret places to play!

I put all the rabbits down together and tried to sneak away. But one would always see me and follow.

After what seemed a very,very, long time the rabbits all got so busy tasting new things and skipping in the big outdoors, that I was able to slip away on them. All the rest of that summer and the next, when we passed the grove in the truck, we would often see one of the big, healthy jack rabbits.

The Jack rabbit would sit up, wash his face with his paws and dash away to the safety of his new home.

Copyright © 2000 [Nell Demyen]. All rights reserved.