Backyard Bunnies
One spring, I found a surprise in my yard.
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The grass had grown tall in the warm spring sun. I noticed a strange pile of grass and fur near my porch. Suddenly it moved! It was a nest. When I looked closer, I saw three animals sleeping inside. Each was the size of a chicken’s egg. Their short ears lay flat against their heads. Their eyes were closed tight. The animals were baby rabbits. |
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What’s under the grass? |
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I looked around. I did not see a mother rabbit anywhere. These rabbits couldn’t be more than one week old. Should I bring them inside? Should I take care of them? I covered them back up with their blanket of grass and fur. Next, I called the wild-animal rescue center for help. I learned that the safest place for a baby rabbit is its nest. Wild animals do not make good pets. |
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It was a nest full of bunnies, each smaller than my thumb. |
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A mother rabbit feeds her young after the sun sets and again before the sun rises. She crouches over the nest to nurse her babies. She hops away if she senses danger. I wanted to make sure that these bunnies had a mother to care for them. That afternoon I put long blades of grass on top of the nest. In the morning, the grass was gone. This told me that their mother had been there to feed them. |
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The bunnies grew every day. |
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I peeked inside. The bunnies wiggled and twitched as they slept. Each day the bunnies grew fatter and fuzzier. Their ears grew longer. Their eyes opened, black and shiny. By the third week, the nest looked crowded. The babies had grown to the size of small eggplants. They watched me with their dark eyes. |
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When the babies were big enough, they could hop away. |
One morning, the nest was empty. I felt sad. I missed the bunnies. But I felt proud, too, because I had kept watch over them without petting or bothering them. They had grown big enough to hop away and live on their own.
Remember: |
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