Rabbit Wrangling

I have another noteworthy experience to share this afternoon. It is a beautiful spring day today so I decided to clean out a bank of rabbit cages in the barn. I put the critters into their summer pen (A topless and bottomless, mobile wire cage that allows for fresh grass munching.) outside of the barn in the pretty sunshine and sweet grass. An hour later I caught a flash of white movement from the corner of my eye where there was not supposed to be a rabbit. I realized one had escaped. Confused I investigated only to discover I had placed the pen upside down and the smaller holes were not at ground level, which had allowed the rabbit to simply scoot right through.

Do you know how hard it is to catch a full-grown rabbit running free in the pasture? Well it is hard. After thirty minutes I was already really tired and wet and muddy from a dozen or so lunges into the muddy long grass when I finally caught the stupid rabbit and a couple of things happened. In the process of the final successful lunge I got one of my braids caught in a raspberry vine. Lots of thorns on those babies at this time of year!

So now picture me on all fours, wet, muddy and with my head anchored eight inches from the ground by my hair. I have a screaming, kicking rabbit held by one foot with my right hand and am trying to remove the raspberry bush from my hair with the left. Oh yes did I mention I was kneeling in a puddle? Just about that time I realized the second thing…in all the commotion another rabbit had escaped. I nearly cried!

I yanked the raspberry bush up by the roots (yes I was wearing gloves) and let it hang as I walked sort of leaning off to one side so I could use both hands to secure the rabbit. I must have looked like Mother Earth with…well earth all over me and a raspberry garland dangling from my waist length braid as I carried screaming rabbit number one back to the barn and her cage.

After disentangling the raspberry bush from my hair I went at it again. Forty minutes later I had wrangled rabbit number two into the barn and was able to get her into a corner where I could grab her and then stuff her back into her cage.

As I was stumbling from the barn dirty and exhausted I reminded myself that I chose this. I wanted to learn to be a rabbit wrangler…well that will teach me!