Saving fuzzy souls

Um, I am superhero Val today. I have to brag about this one. I hope you don't mind.

We were outside this morning and bunny rabbits darted underneath our neighor's deck. Noah and Maia immediately went to the neighbors fence, opened up the entrance door, and ran over to the deck. The stopped when they got to the underneath of the deck as it was blocked off with wooden lattice, so they were unable to get as close as they had wanted to.

Suddenly, neighbor Mimi, opens up the door (after Noah and Maia knocked on it inviting themselves in as they so eloquently do), and the dog, Darby comes out. Darby knows of the rabbits down below the deck and tries pretty darn hard to get to them. And guess what? She does.

Darby was able to sneak under where some lattice was loose and unattached to the deck. I'm like, "Oh no!" and I begin yelling at Darby. She ignores me. What dog wouldn't?! So finally Darby comes out carrying this little bitty teeny tiny rabbit that doesn't even have it's eyes open yet. She drops it and I grab it. I look at Darby and she's smacking her lips. (Bad doggie, Darby. Again, instinctual, I know.)

So Mimi stands guard while I crawl under the deck and look for the nest. I find it and in it are 3 other siblings all warm and cozy. I SAVE THE DAY. My concern now is, will mommy bunny return? Will she smell my human scent on her child? Will she smell a doggie intruder? Will she desert her babies? I hope they will be okay.

This reminds me of numerous times I have "saved" babies in the wild. Growing up on the farm my brother and I would "save" kittens, baby bunnies, and baby birdies who fell out of their nest, all of the time. I can't stand seeing babies lost from their mother or animals in danger. It's an inquired trait of mine that I inherited from my mom.

Just two years ago I saved some ducks. My friend Heidi and I did, actually. Long story short, there were some wood ducklings running around our neighborhood following each other like you see them do a lot, however these babies were not following their mama like they should have been doing. They were walking in circles dazed and confused. So we chased them down and chased them down. They went down into the street drain at one point and we fished them out. They ran into the street and we stopped cars. They ran into peoples' yards encoutering dogs and we asked that the owners put their dogs up so we could save these ducks. We did this -- I did this -- i my 3rd trimester of pregnancy with Maia! I looked like a duck myself!

Anyhow, we did save them and drove them to the zoo. We later find out they didn't survive. Wood ducks are very hyper animals and without their mother, they tend to get overly nervous and anxious, so basically these ducklings all died of hyperactivity . . . broken hearts. At least we tried, but it was a sad day when we found out they didn't make it. I hope these bunnies do.