Robbie the Rabbit

It seems to me that a blog is a kind of diary for our times. Most people seem to share their experiences as well as their thoughts, and so I’d like to tell you about Robbie the Rabbit.

I was out for a walk the night before last, taking the dog out along the reach, which is a kind of canalised stream surrounded by marshland and fed by drainage ditches. On my way back I found something lying in the path that I immediately thought was a mole. Closer inspection revealed it to be a baby something-or-other. There was no obvious nest or burrow that it could have rolled out of. The path at that spot is raised several feet above the land on the left and the stream on the right – there used to be a little railway in Victorian times. It hadn’t been there more than ten minutes. Instinctively I picked it up and brought it home.

It was obviously newly-born – no more than 48 hours old to judge by the remnants of the umbilical cord. At first we thought it was a tiny puppy. It looks a bit like a miniature pit bull, with a short tail and a large head and protuberant eyes. But after a few minutes we realise it’s a wild rabbit kitten. Ever since we’ve been feeding it, first on diluted milk and sugar, then with puppy milk that I got in town. We were using a glass pipette but have moved on to a 1 ml syringe with a bit of thin plastic tube attached. He usually has 1 – 2 ml every two hours, but at least half of that is washing down his body. It takes about 20 minutes to give him a feed. He lives in the airing cupboard in a shoe box, wrapped in a furry hot water bottle cover. Every time I open the box I’m half expecting him to be dead. Veronica over the road once nursed five rabbit kittens and there was only one survivor. The odds are against him, but I have to say he seems very lively and up for the challenge.

I’ve been talking about reason and sentimentality, and here I am, a meat-eater (last week we had rabbit casserole) trying my best to keep this tiny thing alive. I can’t pretend that makes sense.

Updates on Robbie’s progress to follow.