The day before yesterday, I got ambitious and went outside in the morning to mow our front lawn. I figured it wasn't such a feat for a preggo since our front lawn is roughly the size of a postage stamp. I wouldn't have to worry about the back yard since we plowed it under with a truckload of manure a few weeks ago and are still hoping that one day putting seed down would result in an actual lawn back there rather than just a smorgasbord for birds -- for now, we generally just refer to it as the manure farm.

I took a few passes at the lawn with the mower and happened to look behind me, when I noticed that in one place the ground seemed to be heaving. Thinking it was a mole or a gopher, I went back to investigate and was horrified to discover instead that I'd mowed over the top of a small nest of wild baby bunnies.

I've seen rabbits in the wooded areas in our neighborhood and even sometimes in the yards of homes that are closer to those areas but in the ten years we've lived in this house, I've never actually seen a wild rabbit in our yard, much less known of one digging a nest anywhere on our property. Wouldn't you think that most animals would choose a little more secluded place to burrow - perhaps by the hedge row or under a tree? Next to the house? This was smack dab in the middle of the lawn. What was the matter with this momma bunny? Talk about lack of judgment. Where was bunny CPS? Planned bunny parenthood?

There were two babies about six or eight inches long in the nest and one lost a front and back leg - although I didn't know that until the next day - he had burrowed way down inside where I couldn't see. The other had lost one of his ears. He was clearly scared of the sound of the mower, which was still running, and was trying to run away from it so I turned off the mower, scooped him up and slipped him back into the nest. I tried getting in touch with a local wildlife rescue to ask for advice or a place to take them but the only number I could find forced me to listen to a twenty minute long message which basically informed me that I shouldn't touch them unless they were hurt and then put me into voice mail where I could leave a number for a call back. Am still waiting for that call, by the way. Needless to say, I haven't finished mowing the lawn yet.

We watched overnight, but we don't think the mother ever came back to the nest. From what I read on the Interweb, she's isn't going to. So yesterday we checked on them and found that the first baby had died, so we took it from the nest. The other one seemed to be fine and healthy, except for the lack of an ear. We left some hearts of celery around the nest in a desperate attempt at atonement with mother nature. This morning, my little one-eared baby is completely gone. I guess he got tired of having he house messed with and decided to go it alone.

If anyone sees a bunny hopping around with only one ear, can they please give him a carrot for me? I'm hoping it will alleviate some of my guilt.