#i've been waiting every 30 minutes for this post y'all have no idea—

[12am-motivation]

"I can also have you all to myself?" 😳

[creampuffqueen]

okay i got one like so now i'm going to give y'all a rabbit lore drop! meet this guy, #4, aka Number Fucking Four

be me

second year raising meat rabbits. mostly know what i'm doing

it's the day of the county fair

i'm dressed and ready to leave, all that's left is to grab my show rabbits from their hutch

look outside

little brother is chasing a white blur around the backyard

Oh Fuck

turns out one of the cage doors was open overnight. either accidentally unlocked, or somehow fell open. no idea. doesn't matter

thankfully, not the cage door of the rabbits i'm taking to show. those three are still waiting in their hutch, perfectly behaved

but in the other cage, 5/6 of the babies are running haywire around our backyard

we live on 3/4 of an acre, btw. it's a large backyard

whole family chases rabbits for 30 minutes

4 of the 5 escapees are caught

1 still eludes us. it's hiding beneath the shed

i have to leave for the show. family promises to catch rabbit and meet me there

i go to the rabbit show

parents show up right before it starts. they were unsuccessful in catching the last rabbit and have decided to try again when we get home

i do really well at the rabbit show :D my trio makes sale!!

we all go home

baby rabbit is ducking between fences outside. staying close but not close enough

finally my mom goes into the neighbor's yard and catches it from behind

rabbit screams bloody murder the entire walk home. it's not hurt. just furious at being caught

we discover this is rabbit #4 (we don't name the babies, just number them. helps with attachment as they are meat animals)

surely the excitement is all over! we can rest easy

NOPE

next day, #4 looks a bit sluggish. i start getting worried

day 2 post-escape, he looks almost on death's doorstep. Oh Fuck

during his hours away, he must have gotten into something bad

we scramble for what to do

he is floppy, clearly extremely dehydrated

but, on the plus side, his mother is still taking care of him! that's a good sign. rabbits won't take care of a baby they think is going to die. she's protecting him from his siblings and spending all day grooming him

the babies are weaned at this point, so he can't get his mother's milk to help perk him up

we improvise

we start syringe feeding him watered down heavy cream for hydration + nutrition

^^^^ do NOT do this. idk why it worked honestly. weaned mammals are lactose intolerant. somehow it worked, but don't try this home

but it did work

#4 managed to push through the worst of it and his body cleared whatever toxins were in his system

we were syringe feeding him every few hours. during the day when we were at work and school a neighbor came and did it. we didn't want this baby to die

and bonus: since he got held so much, he quickly became one of the most docile babies i've ever raised

okay, now it's over! he's healthy again!

NOPE

be me, a few weeks later

mom has been in the hospital. family is pretty stressed

but she's being released today! dad and brother are going to pick her up, i'm tidying the house, home alone

i notice a white blur running around in the yard

Oh Fuck

run outside. a corner of the cage wire has come loose. just enough for a baby rabbit to slip through

and guess who's fucking running wild in the backyard?

Number Fucking Four

i chase. he runs

i manage to corner him behind our pool chest. he's squeezed between the chest and the side of the shed

i reach down to grab him

Uh Oh

my arm is stuck

like. really stuck

like, wedged down to my shoulder stuck

try not to panic

panic a little

thankfully, i have one free arm and my phone

call neighbor

no answer

call other neighbor

no answer

call dad

answer! he's still at the hospital getting my mom released. won't be home for another 30-45 minutes

FUCK

try not to panic

panic some more

call neighbors again. still no answer

then, somehow, someway, manage to free my arm

we're so back

stick a pool net at one end of the tunnel. position myself at the other end

#4 falls right into my trap and into the pool net, where i grab him

obviously can't put him back in the hutch

am forced to take him inside and just let him hang out in the kitchen until my family gets home

that's where these pictures are from. look at his assholeish face :/

jk i love him

dad fixes hutch

finally, we're done

#4 is no longer with us, but he will forever live in infamy