Jimmy "the bunny who won't stay for long" G-G

Today's story begins in the morning...

Henry and I came across this poor little critter being chased by a neighborhood cat and watched by a cawing crow when we were leaving the house.

We tried to make him comfortable in a box and then drove to Mt. Tabor so Henry could make it to his cross country practice.  We were dreadfully late and so Henry completed a run by himself while I stayed with our guest and began researching bunnies.  When we got back to the condo we looked for a nest or den in the field next door to see if we could return him to his actual home but we were unable to find one.  The wild brush all kind of looked the same to us.  

We learned the Portland office of The Audubon Society has a Wildlife Care Center where people can drop off abandoned mammals.  Off we went!  Jimmy "the bunny who won't be here long" G-G  was evaluated, it was determined he was an eastern cottontail, he had not been injured in the dust up this morning although he was a little stressed, he was old enough to have been weaned from his mom, and it would be best for him if we returned him to the area where we found him*.  

So we brought Jimmy home and made him comfortable, we didn't want to put the poor bugger in the field in the middle of the day when it was hot, hot, hot outside.  (That's triple hot, ya'll.)  The home range of eastern cottontail bunnies is typically around an acre to an acre and a half so we are hopeful that our plan to return him to a place near where we found him will increase the likelihood of his mom finding him.  Fingers crossed!

A little more research and we offered up a small snack: red leaf lettuce and sage leaves with a side of water.  He ate most of one of the sage leaves over the next couple hours.  I couldn't tell if the reduction in the tiny amount of water we provided was because he had a sip or if it just evaporated.

Jimmy G-G seemed pretty chill.

After dinner we returned him to the wild.  We tried to find a bush big enough to provide both cover from predators and shade from the sun (in case he's still there tomorrow).

 

This is our last pic of Jimmy G-G.  He wasn't with us for long but he'll be in our hearts forever.

*Best because Jimmy G-G is a non-native bunny and the Wildlife Care Center would have put Jimmy G-G down if we had left him there.  Jimmy's best chance for survival was to return him to the wild, which is what we did.  

UPDATE: 9:23pm - First check on Jimmy G-G and he's gone!  A few of the wheat stalks Henry laid over the top of his hiding place were disturbed but only slightly.  We take that to mean Jimmy saw his mom and left the den to go with her to their real home.