Rabbit Rehab

Our 2 newest cats (Fiona the Feral & Kit Kat the Domestic) are great mousers. Unhappily, they are also great rabbiters. Their killing styles are typical. Kit Kat will bring it (whatever "it" is) down the hill for our approval & play w/ it to death. Fiona will bring her "it" down the hill for our approval, but she only wants admiration, we're not allowed w/in 6 ft. or so of her prey. Then she'll give it a neck snapping shake, eviscerate it & devour the entrails, even though we've been feeding her for over 6 months.

Baby rabbit screams are common around our property & I find it upsetting, because rabbit meat is good. I'd like for them to have a chance to grow up & grace our table. I feel the cats are robbing us, so I sent Victor out to rescue Kit Kat's latest victim. After a quick look see & finding no damage I left him in the sun in my basket. It hopped but was unable to clear the sides...

...or so I thought. Victor grabbed it & it went into the kitty carrier.

We put it in Victor's room, made a nest of straw & cotton, added a water dish, some collards & carrots, but they went untouched all day. I filled a tincture dropper w/ goat milk & got a couple of drops down its throat before it stopped cooperating. The next day it just refused altogether. Victor came running to find me in the middle of his free time, which is unusual. He treasures & protects his free time.

"Mama! I think the rabbits dead! I was playing Legos w/ the it & pet it & it fell over, come see!"

Sure enough. We wrapped up the rabbit, made an Amazon coffin & had a funeral out in the front yard.
Google told me 9 out of 10 wild baby rabbits will die when kept by people, so I didn't feel too bad, especially as I had done almost everything it said to, save taking it to a professional rabbit rehabilitator.  (??? They have those?)

Another learning experience, a small one, but I like to think (hope) they'll remember small incidents like this when they're grown up & call their childhood a rich one.