Rabbit
Wednesday started out with Doug rushing into the house early in the morning saying he needed help outside. One of the rabbit bucks, Bart, got out of his yard and was running free! If you’ve never caught an escaped domestic rabbit before, I can tell you they are fast and agile. When they don’t want to be caught, they put up a good fight. Sometimes you can walk quickly behind them and they’ll go back to the spot in the fence where they got out from. Bart wasn’t about to give up his secret escape route. Since catching rabbits isn’t a one-person job, Doug, Tabitha, and I had to work together in order to be able to grab him. We’re getting better at catching loose rabbits so it only took us about ten minutes of diving into snowbanks before we were able to catch him!
Once we got Bart back into his yard, we looked around and couldn’t figure out how he got out. There were no holes by the fence, so it didn’t look like he dug out. Since he didn’t go under the fence, we had to assume he went over the fence! Rabbits are good climbers. We’ve had some rabbits climb a four-foot high fence just to get to the grass and weeds on the other side! They really believe the grass is greener (and tastier) on the other side!
Badger
A couple of hours after catching Bart, one of the neighbors sent out an urgent message on the neighborhood’s Facebook page. She said she saw a badger on our street and wanted to let everyone know so we could all keep a close eye on our pets and livestock. Badgers have been coming around a lot lately. They aren’t animals to take chances with. Like most wildlife, they’re unpredictable and dangerous when they feel threatened. Tabitha and I walked around to make sure the badger hadn’t gotten into any of the animal yards. There was a lot of snow on the ground, so we would have been able to see the badger’s footprints easily. Thankfully, it didn’t come near the animals, and everyone was secure and safe.
Mouse
Tabitha and I went back into the house to warm up and so she could start cleaning mouse cages. She yelled from the basement saying Moose got out of his holding carrier when she was cleaning. We have dogs, cats, a snake, rats, reptiles, and turtles who would all love a mouse snack. Moose getting out was an emergency. Thankfully he was drawn to the light of our flashlight and came out of his dark hiding place pretty quickly. Tabitha picked him up and put him in his cage and all was well again on the farm.
Or so we thought.
Rabbit
When Tabitha and I went outside to feed and water everyone after she was done cleaning mouse cages, we noticed that Bart had gotten out again! We eventually caught him and put him back into his rabbit yard. We discovered that he was climbing onto his shade structure and, from there, climbing over the fence. I immediately grabbed the drill and took down the shade structure. He’s been contained since!