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zasu — Rabbit Rescue

Published: 2006-01-23 21:40:15 +0000 UTC; Views: 2636; Favourites: 71; Downloads: 54
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Description halloween, 2004

after trick or treating through a light snowstorm, we stopped by the hotsprings next to a river so i could take some pics of wolf in his costume, with steam from the hot springs all around him for a "mist"ical look.

a few other people, all locals and friends, had done the same thing. not to take photos, but, well, when one lives where there are no 7-11's to hang out, one has to make do with the usual old hot springs next to the river, right?

one family was there with their boxer, who was running around, barking like crazy. the woman said, "oh, cheyanne's chasing a wild rabbit around. don't worry. she never catches them..." and at that moment, cheyanne caught one. i ran over to the dog and yelled, "DROP IT!" (not knowing if she was trained, or if she'd even respond to me). luckily, she dropped the young bunny and backed off. the rabbit was just laying there, in shock. so i picked her up and handed her to wolf. i took a picture, then ran to the car and got a towel to wrap around her.

my husband hates it when i bring injured animals home to try to rescue them, but i ignored him and rode home with her in my arms. she recovered after a few hours, but i was pretty sure she was a domestic rabbit that had been abandoned (or her parents had been - the woman with the dog said there was an entire family of these dark rabbits by the river, some of them bigger than mine, others tiny babies). anyway, i decided to keep her as a pet.

i made the pic bigger than usual so you can see (IN FULLVIEW) her fur is still slimey and dirty from being in the dog's mouth and dropped on the wet ground. as you can see, wolf was upset the dog had almost killed the bunny.
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Comments: 90

zasu In reply to ??? [2016-02-08 00:04:28 +0000 UTC]

Thank you! Glad you liked the photo of my son and the rabbit we rescued on Halloween

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KreepingSpawn [2013-02-22 04:40:41 +0000 UTC]

Great shot, and a great story.

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zasu In reply to KreepingSpawn [2013-03-06 22:58:27 +0000 UTC]

and a great many thanks for looking

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KreepingSpawn In reply to zasu [2013-03-07 23:39:00 +0000 UTC]

Sure thing!

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Snovi [2010-12-12 17:20:59 +0000 UTC]

there should be more people like you!

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zasu In reply to Snovi [2011-01-23 07:55:15 +0000 UTC]

thank you

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Zechira [2010-06-05 20:41:54 +0000 UTC]

That's such a sweet story. I love it when little things are rescued like that...

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zasu In reply to Zechira [2010-06-06 07:39:42 +0000 UTC]

thanks. i'm glad you liked it

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SightlessStock [2009-09-22 20:56:58 +0000 UTC]

I just want to favourite this over and over again.

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zasu In reply to SightlessStock [2009-09-22 21:30:47 +0000 UTC]

and i'll thank you over and over again

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SightlessStock In reply to zasu [2009-10-06 18:31:05 +0000 UTC]



I'm just a crazy rabbit lady - don't mind me.

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zasu In reply to SightlessStock [2009-10-07 19:33:30 +0000 UTC]

lol

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irish-brigid [2009-08-27 16:47:16 +0000 UTC]

Well, it could be a dark color variant of wild rabbit in that area. But the rather even, dusky color does suggest domestic. (And that's a good sized bunny! Not a baby any more, is he.)

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zasu In reply to irish-brigid [2009-08-27 21:20:14 +0000 UTC]

yeah, the more i looked into it, asked locals, etc, the only wild type of rabbit up in the mountains around there are snow hares, which have huge feet, and shaded brown to cream fur. and i figured she was an adolescent, as there were both larger and smaller bunnies in the group, plus, over the next couple of years that we had her, she grew a bit bigger

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irish-brigid In reply to zasu [2009-08-31 14:59:45 +0000 UTC]

No cotton tails? Wow.

Anyway, is this in America? Because if the rabbits by the hotspring live in burrows then they're definitely descended from domestic rabbits, or at least European cottontails, since American cottontails don't live underground.

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zasu In reply to irish-brigid [2009-08-31 19:05:42 +0000 UTC]

lol... after she escaped out our back door and lived under our house for the next year, she very definitely created a series of burrows under there. it was really cute and, yes, this is in the mountains of idaho. maybe too cold for cottontails - this family of rabbits had been dumped right next to an area of hot springs, so was probably a limited area where they could survive due to the warmth. and our house is also heated by hot springs, through piping that runs under the floors - under the house, where she made her burrows. also a nice, toasty warm area for her

hmmm... i just looked in my audubon book of north american mammals, and there IS a mountain cotttontail that is right on the border of where i lived in the mountains, but its coloring is much lighter than this bunny and all its relatives that were living by the hot springs. also, like you said, they don't make burrows themselves. but interesting to find out that there could possibly be native cottontails up there - just have never seen anything but the snowshoe hares.

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irish-brigid In reply to zasu [2009-09-01 17:44:36 +0000 UTC]

That is cute. lol American cottontails will hide in burrows made by other animals and crawl under buildings but they won't do any expansion work so this definitely sounds like a case of domestic rabbits going native.

Since the area is mountainous, that could be why there aren't any local breeds. Rabbits are okay with cold as long as they can find someplace warm to snuggle into, but they seem to prefer rolling hills and plains to mountains. (I'm not exactly an expert on rabbits, but I love collecting trivia and since I have a pet rabbit finding out more about them is an interest of mine. ^^ )

That heating through hot springs sounds fantastic. Bet it saves a lot on your energy bill. Kinda makes me wish that the frozen plains of Minnesota had hot springs.

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zasu In reply to irish-brigid [2009-09-09 06:24:49 +0000 UTC]

minnesota? wow... that IS cold! i mean, we get up to 12 feet of snow, and down to 20 degrees below zero sometimes, but it's normally not too terrible. at least not for us humans inside our little cabins. and, yeah, our power bills in the winter are only about $25 a month due to the hot springs heating (it's also our shower and clothes washer hot water). i've heard you can get geothermal heating for your house by digging down deep in the earth and somehow piping it in. not water, just heat from the earth

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irish-brigid In reply to zasu [2009-09-09 13:49:49 +0000 UTC]

Sweetness. I would love having a power bill that low in the winter.

I think there was a Dirty Jobs episode on geothermal heating...

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whitelighter5 [2009-04-13 03:33:18 +0000 UTC]

That was a vey kind thing you did. What did you name the rabbit doe (She-rabbit), BTW?

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zasu In reply to whitelighter5 [2009-05-03 06:25:14 +0000 UTC]

we weren't too creative with her name - we named her Bunny

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whitelighter5 In reply to zasu [2009-05-03 19:58:18 +0000 UTC]

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CozyComfyCouch [2009-04-02 03:01:16 +0000 UTC]

This cute and lovely piece is featured here
[link]

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Iamidaho [2009-02-19 05:54:13 +0000 UTC]

good work domestic animals have no business chasing and killing other animals. its dangerous.

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zasu In reply to Iamidaho [2009-02-20 06:55:40 +0000 UTC]

thanks - did you find my rabbit photo through a feature? just curious about why i suddenly got so many comments the past couple of days on an old photo (but also grateful, of course )

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Iamidaho In reply to zasu [2009-02-24 06:35:51 +0000 UTC]

Yup KKart the APN gallery director featured it

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zasu In reply to Iamidaho [2009-02-24 07:21:41 +0000 UTC]

i've now heard that from someone else, and that's really surprising, as i read his posts (and returned to check again), but never saw it. oh well... the mysteries of dA did he feature it somewhere other than on his account?

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AdamsWife [2009-02-16 01:13:10 +0000 UTC]

Well done, so many people ignore wild animals in distress, particularly men I find. (including my husband, but he is very good with our pets) Perhaps it's a fear of some kind.

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zasu In reply to AdamsWife [2009-02-20 06:54:37 +0000 UTC]

a fear of attachment

but he's also mentioned things like worry that they'd be diseased (he had to get a painful series of rabies shots when he was a little boy after having picked up a dead bat, so that may be an especially strong fear in him), and something about "nature taking its course" :/

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SeaWhisper [2009-02-15 23:22:27 +0000 UTC]

aww I'm so glad you were able to save the bunny, you can your husband from me, how can he be annoyed by bringing animals and trying to rescue them? argh men!

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zasu In reply to SeaWhisper [2009-02-20 06:52:27 +0000 UTC]

fer sure! silly guys

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fluffyvolkswagen [2009-02-15 22:16:38 +0000 UTC]

Poor bunny.
Wonderful story

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zasu In reply to fluffyvolkswagen [2009-02-20 06:52:01 +0000 UTC]

thanks - did you find this through a feature? i got so many comments on it suddenly, but no one mentioned featuring it, so i'm just curious - and grateful

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fluffyvolkswagen In reply to zasu [2009-02-23 02:56:48 +0000 UTC]

Welcome and yes!!! ^kkart featured you!!!

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zasu In reply to fluffyvolkswagen [2009-02-23 06:47:51 +0000 UTC]

wow... i hadn't seen anything on his site... strange. but then again, it happened while i was gone on a trip. how kind of john

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fluffyvolkswagen In reply to zasu [2009-02-24 18:49:37 +0000 UTC]

Lol!!! I'm sure if you go through his journal's you would find it in there somewhere!!!
Sorry I can link you myself I have a really bad internet connection and I don't think my computer would survive all that loading!!!

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zasu In reply to fluffyvolkswagen [2009-02-25 06:02:14 +0000 UTC]

weird thing is i actually did go through all his february journals, yet couldn't find it. hmmm... (and yeah, he's got tons to load, doesn't he? but he's very, very informative and helpful )

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fluffyvolkswagen In reply to zasu [2009-02-25 15:25:59 +0000 UTC]

I was really sure it was his journal... But maybe it wasn't But I was so sure!!! Did you ask anyone else how they came across it???

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zasu In reply to fluffyvolkswagen [2009-02-25 21:57:10 +0000 UTC]

yeah, they mentioned kkart, but not the specifics of where. i suppose i could ask the man himself, but he seems so extremely busy - so i figured i'd bug you instead

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fluffyvolkswagen In reply to zasu [2009-02-25 22:30:46 +0000 UTC]

Lol!!! Well I'm thinking maybe he used the same journal twice and erased you're feature or something!!!
Thats the only think I can think of!!

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zasu In reply to fluffyvolkswagen [2009-02-25 22:42:27 +0000 UTC]

hehe.. that definitely happens - saves effort

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fluffyvolkswagen In reply to zasu [2009-02-25 23:26:07 +0000 UTC]

It does
Pity you didn't get to see you're feature though!!!

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zasu In reply to fluffyvolkswagen [2009-02-26 06:27:48 +0000 UTC]

i KNOW... that would have been awesome

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fluffyvolkswagen In reply to zasu [2009-02-26 18:11:07 +0000 UTC]

Yep!!!

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zasu In reply to fluffyvolkswagen [2009-02-26 20:03:43 +0000 UTC]

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NativeTexanZach [2009-02-15 21:38:30 +0000 UTC]

Heartwarming.

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zasu In reply to NativeTexanZach [2009-02-20 06:51:13 +0000 UTC]

twas a sweet bunny

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CozyComfyCouch [2008-05-29 03:43:14 +0000 UTC]

I feature this lovely photo here
[link]

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irrelevant-disaster [2008-04-13 17:18:54 +0000 UTC]

love this! :]

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zasu In reply to irrelevant-disaster [2008-04-14 21:57:42 +0000 UTC]

thanks - i see you like bunnies

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