The Andover Rabbit Wrangle
It – the rabbit wrangling saga – all started with a phone call to the HRN hotline. According to the caller, the following scenario had occurred. While watching children play softball at an Andover baseball field, some parents observed an unidentified man at the field’s periphery releasing about a dozen pet rabbits to uncertain fates. Responding quickly, several adults were able to rescue six rabbits by grabbing the disoriented individuals. The caller wanted to know where she could have the rabbits spayed and neutered. She also asked numerous questions about two females who were both visibly pregnant. The saga continued with a close-following second phone call to the hotline. This one, from a different Andover citizen, was about the same herd of dumped rabbits. The caller had managed to rescue yet another rabbit and place it in a home. She mentioned that someone else had been able to round up two more. At the end of her message, she asked, “Does your organization want to help?”
Typically, HRN works directly with local animal shelters, taking their rabbits and placing them in our network of foster homes. Therefore, this type of request is rather “beyond the call to duty” as it creates an unexpected surge in rabbits needing placement in foster care. Foster homes don’t normally have empty pens, so surprises such as this compel foster homes to extend themselves beyond regular capacity. However, HRN is a community-focused organization dedicated to bettering the lives of all house rabbits, so when I answered the call about the dumped rabbits, it was with a deliberate, “Yes, we will.”
Now that the commitment to assist was made, I raced my daughter up to her riding lesson, picked up Teresa (another HRN volunteer), and headed over to the Andover park. What we saw amazed and saddened us. One rabbit was hiding under a huge garbage dumpster. Two others, a small cream-colored dwarf rabbit and a black mini-lop, were romping freely in a heavily wooded area. We were told there was a fourth black rabbit, somewhat of a loner, who was not in sight. After assessing the situation, we concentrated on capturing the dwarf/mini-lop pair. A group of parents joined the rescue attempt, and after some heated chasing and herding, we caught the cream-colored dwarf rabbit under a blanket. I named him Parker. Friendly? Absolutely. He had one dog tick on him and a few small wounds, but considering his situation, he was in decent shape and had a great disposition.
That evening, I returned home with Parker, but I couldn’t get the other rabbit off my mind. I didn’t know for whom I felt worse: Parker, without his friend in a strange place, or the black mini-lop, now alone in the woods without Parker. I returned to the field early the next morning (I couldn’t sleep for worrying). The black mini-lop was on the side of the field, munching on dewy grass. There were bags of carrots and loose bananas scattered about, left by concerned parents. Alone, I could do nothing, except to toss a few carrots toward the tentative rabbit.
On the following evening, a group of us returned to the field, this time equipped with carriers, pens, blankets, and more food. We were able to surround the area where the black mini-lop was now located, under one of the dugouts, with a metal pen. Naturally, there had to be complications: baseball players arrived for the evening game and needed their dugout – and it began to rain. When the rain began to fall heavily, several volunteers left. Who could blame them? But I just had this feeling, so I stood with a comforter over my head, talking to the players’ parents, waiting, apologizing for any inconvenience. Suddenly, out from under the dugout came the little black mini-lop. She gave no fight, unlike her friend Parker. I felt she sensed our help was salvation, not capture. I scooted her into a carrier and took her home, where I named her Hanna.
The HRN hotline phone continued to ring. A third caller asked if we were going after the remaining rabbits. So in response, another volunteer group formed, consisting of HRN members Carol, Suzanne, Suzanne’s husband Gary, Dina, my daughter Laura, her friend Tamra, several others from the original Andover rescue party, and myself. Again, we penned in the dugout area and waited. Emerging from under the dugout into our expectant arms appeared Greta, who was promptly taken home by Carol. And then came the last call. The fourth and final rabbit had been spotted again – the solitary black bunny. Suzanne and Gary undertook that rescue, and miraculously went home with Blackie.
And so ended the Andover rabbit wrangle. From what we can determine, all the rabbits have been rescued and treated, and are safe in permanent or foster homes. What an accomplishment! Unfortunately, no one was able to finger the man who thought that domestic pet rabbits were suited to a feral life in Andover’s woods.
Parker was quickly adopted by a family who reports that he oft times shares a playpen with their young daughter. He is enjoying the loving attention that he so rightly deserves. (Parker was not bonded to Hanna, his friend from the woods, so he was OK being adopted out on his own.) Hanna has had a harder time of it. She was pregnant at the time of her rescue, and has since delivered a litter of seven, of which she lost two. She then underwent two surgical procedures to remove a toe compromised by a viral infection caused by an insect bite. Hanna pulled through and is doing well, along with her remaining five babies.
Greta, also pregnant, delivered her litter of seven babies less than a week later. Mom and babies are all doing well and keeping their foster parents busy. In the near future, both Hanna and Greta will undergo their spays, and when it is time, all the babies will have their spays or neuters – and everybun will be ready for adoption! Blackie, a quiet and gentle doe, was adopted two months ago with Tamra and is now happily part of a trio.
This rabbit wrangling effort has been quite a lot of work, especially for the foster homes (I am one; Carol the other) who weren’t expecting to accommodate pregnant does. Days spent standing in the rain, multiple vet visits, countless trips to the market to feed ravenous babies, and endless litterbox changings…Would I do it again? In a heartbeat.
