and God can take away.
Last night as I was laying down in bed trying my best to sleep I heard a bunch of dogs barking. I live in a residential neighborhood so, even though it was late at night and not really common for that to happen it's not unheard of either. I really wished they would shut up, I remember thinking that.
My wife wakes up this morning to get ready for work and then comes and wakes me up, "The rabbits are gone!" Huh?
I have 5 rabbits, well, technically 6 but the other one was just about to meat (hehe) the freezer as I didn't have any room for him or need. (Good rabbit though.) My cages are set up in rows, with the breeding cages on the bottom and the grow out cages on top. So, 5 rabbits, 2 SF, 2 NZW and 1 Cali (3 does 2 bucks) are down on the bottom with the 1 extra being stored temporarily in the grow out cage.
I went out side with my wife to see what she was talking about and sure enough 3 of 6 rabbits were gone. The cages on 2 were opened up but the one for my main buck was still closed. Hmmm. Why is he gone but his cage is closed? If it was a person then I really don't think they would be kind enough to close the cage after themselves. I looked a bit closer, (have to remember it's dark and I'm not a morning person so I'm groggy,) and I saw the cage wire on the bottom had been bitten through. Well, maybe bitten through doesn't get this across. The cage wire had been mauled. Part of it was ripped down and in another part there was a hole. MmmmmOK. I'm awake now, thank you.
That's also when it hits me that I had dogs barking incessantly last night! Uh oh. There were things thrown all over the place under my car porch from where the chase started. The rabbits liked to jump in a coupled of totes I have under there when I let them run around so that's where they headed thinking it to be safe. The totes were tossed and broken. I raise my head from the scene to scan the yard. I see 2 dead rabbits, my main breeders, Maizy and Jax, my 2 NZW's. I started rabbits almost a year ago and have lost a few rabbits to different things, broken necks, disease etc. so I've had to replace them. Jax was the only rabbit that I had left out of my original stock. He was a good rabbit, calm, didn't his job and just liked to be social. I suppose it's fitting that him and Maizy were lying dead next to each other though. They were caged right next to each other and had been mated together quiet often.
Ok, 2 accounted for. Still missing my californian doe. So I look around the yard with my mag light. I look under tarps, swing sets and rain barrels. Nothing else is in the back yard. I go ahead and bag the 2 up so that the wife doesn't have to look at them and toss them away. The wife goes towards the front yard to start the van for work and see's a patch of fur and tells me. I come out there and sure enough, it's rabbit fur. I look all over for her, going through person's yards with there spot lights coming on. I feel like a burglar but I'm pretty sure I could have convinced them that I meant no harm since I was in nothing but sandals without socks. I'm looking with my mag light and thought I saw something white and furry hop down a driveway so I take off running after it. In the process of trying to track it down I lost my sandals. If anyone was curious, grass is frigid in the wee early morning hours when it's 30F outside and there is still melted snow on the ground. I got to where I saw the rabbit and nothing was there or around. I don't know where Lola is. Still don't. I assume she got away from them but even if she did, she is either dead now or won't make it long. I'm surprised she made it out of the front yard to be honest. For a caged rabbit to live too long with all sorts of preditors around isn't very likely. Still, when the sun comes up I'll go drive around in the van for a few minutes just in case.
The wife still thinks it was humans who did it. She says dogs can't open cages. Mmmm, yeah they can. I'll try to also explain to her that it's rather unheard of for a human to maul a cage from underneath. Well, it's probably unlikely they'd maul the cage at all actually, especially when they can just open it and take the rabbit. I'm not sure why they left the SF's alone, though I'm sure not complaining. I guess they were too distracted by the fluffy white targets scurrying around to really take notice. What probably happened was my Cali ran out the front to try to lead them away from the other rabbits. Such a courage's one. I'll make sure she gets a Purple Heart. Of course they couldn't reach the NZW buck in the grow out cage because that is about 6' off the ground, so he was safe. Good thing I kept him too. Once I get Jax's cage fixed I'll put him in there. Looks like it's time to start looking for 2 more rabbits now though. I hate doing though because you just never know what you are going to bring back to your herd and I don't mean personality though that too. I mean disease.
It's been in the plans for a while to put a barn door on the front of the car port once we got the money and now it seems official. It will probably happen within the next day or 2. It's kind of difficult to go to home depot in a mini van with 5 kids and get plywood. I can get it in the van but it would just be laying on their heads.
TL;DR God gave, God can take away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Last night as I was laying down in bed trying my best to sleep I heard a bunch of dogs barking. I live in a residential neighborhood so, even though it was late at night and not really common for that to happen it's not unheard of either. I really wished they would shut up, I remember thinking that.
My wife wakes up this morning to get ready for work and then comes and wakes me up, "The rabbits are gone!" Huh?
I have 5 rabbits, well, technically 6 but the other one was just about to meat (hehe) the freezer as I didn't have any room for him or need. (Good rabbit though.) My cages are set up in rows, with the breeding cages on the bottom and the grow out cages on top. So, 5 rabbits, 2 SF, 2 NZW and 1 Cali (3 does 2 bucks) are down on the bottom with the 1 extra being stored temporarily in the grow out cage.
I went out side with my wife to see what she was talking about and sure enough 3 of 6 rabbits were gone. The cages on 2 were opened up but the one for my main buck was still closed. Hmmm. Why is he gone but his cage is closed? If it was a person then I really don't think they would be kind enough to close the cage after themselves. I looked a bit closer, (have to remember it's dark and I'm not a morning person so I'm groggy,) and I saw the cage wire on the bottom had been bitten through. Well, maybe bitten through doesn't get this across. The cage wire had been mauled. Part of it was ripped down and in another part there was a hole. MmmmmOK. I'm awake now, thank you.
That's also when it hits me that I had dogs barking incessantly last night! Uh oh. There were things thrown all over the place under my car porch from where the chase started. The rabbits liked to jump in a coupled of totes I have under there when I let them run around so that's where they headed thinking it to be safe. The totes were tossed and broken. I raise my head from the scene to scan the yard. I see 2 dead rabbits, my main breeders, Maizy and Jax, my 2 NZW's. I started rabbits almost a year ago and have lost a few rabbits to different things, broken necks, disease etc. so I've had to replace them. Jax was the only rabbit that I had left out of my original stock. He was a good rabbit, calm, didn't his job and just liked to be social. I suppose it's fitting that him and Maizy were lying dead next to each other though. They were caged right next to each other and had been mated together quiet often.
Ok, 2 accounted for. Still missing my californian doe. So I look around the yard with my mag light. I look under tarps, swing sets and rain barrels. Nothing else is in the back yard. I go ahead and bag the 2 up so that the wife doesn't have to look at them and toss them away. The wife goes towards the front yard to start the van for work and see's a patch of fur and tells me. I come out there and sure enough, it's rabbit fur. I look all over for her, going through person's yards with there spot lights coming on. I feel like a burglar but I'm pretty sure I could have convinced them that I meant no harm since I was in nothing but sandals without socks. I'm looking with my mag light and thought I saw something white and furry hop down a driveway so I take off running after it. In the process of trying to track it down I lost my sandals. If anyone was curious, grass is frigid in the wee early morning hours when it's 30F outside and there is still melted snow on the ground. I got to where I saw the rabbit and nothing was there or around. I don't know where Lola is. Still don't. I assume she got away from them but even if she did, she is either dead now or won't make it long. I'm surprised she made it out of the front yard to be honest. For a caged rabbit to live too long with all sorts of preditors around isn't very likely. Still, when the sun comes up I'll go drive around in the van for a few minutes just in case.
The wife still thinks it was humans who did it. She says dogs can't open cages. Mmmm, yeah they can. I'll try to also explain to her that it's rather unheard of for a human to maul a cage from underneath. Well, it's probably unlikely they'd maul the cage at all actually, especially when they can just open it and take the rabbit. I'm not sure why they left the SF's alone, though I'm sure not complaining. I guess they were too distracted by the fluffy white targets scurrying around to really take notice. What probably happened was my Cali ran out the front to try to lead them away from the other rabbits. Such a courage's one. I'll make sure she gets a Purple Heart. Of course they couldn't reach the NZW buck in the grow out cage because that is about 6' off the ground, so he was safe. Good thing I kept him too. Once I get Jax's cage fixed I'll put him in there. Looks like it's time to start looking for 2 more rabbits now though. I hate doing though because you just never know what you are going to bring back to your herd and I don't mean personality though that too. I mean disease.
It's been in the plans for a while to put a barn door on the front of the car port once we got the money and now it seems official. It will probably happen within the next day or 2. It's kind of difficult to go to home depot in a mini van with 5 kids and get plywood. I can get it in the van but it would just be laying on their heads.
TL;DR God gave, God can take away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
