Last night, I thought I lost my baby forever. He was running around the backyard, happy, and i was about to leave for a church thing. I went to put him up so the owls/hawks didn’t carry him off, and I could NOT find him. I started crying and hyperventilating, worried that maybe I waited too long and he did get carried off, or that I didn’t block off one of the wild rabbits’ fence holes well enough and he got out. I started thinking of all the worst possible outcomes, scared I’d never see him again.
After about 15 minutes of looking for him (which included me running around my neighborhood in a dress and socks, with no shoes, full makeup, tears streaming down my face) my sister yelled from our backyard ”WE FOUND HIM” and I SPRINTED home, threw open the front door, ran through the house to the backyard, and down the side of the house where our AC unit is located. I saw my sister kneeling by the trash can and recycling bin with a flashlight and a piece of bok choy, trying to convince my baby to come out of his makeshift hiding spot.
Once I had him safely in my arms, I started crying even harder, SO relieved that we had found him before he got hurt or killed. As I was walking back to my porch, I noticed a small hole in the plastic baby gate that we had used to block off the can/AC units from my rabbit (since the gate in the fence had a broken piece of wood that made it possible for him to squeeze under the fence and access the front yard, right next to the street.
Apparently, the female wild rabbit that lives on the OTHER side of our house, beyond the fence in this little greenway (we have a corner house) had chewed a hole in the baby gate so she could forage in our backyard, and my baby had smelled her and tried to interact with her. We think he may have tried to mate.
So yeah, I feel guilty for not having no my baby be inside-only, even though it’s my dad’s fault for saying no. But maybe if I had pushed him or presented him with research stating that rabbits do better and are safer inside, then he would have changed his mind?
TL;DR my rabbit wanted an gf and escaped the baby gates, now I feel guilty that I didn’t push my dad hard enough to let Lucas Parker be inside-only.
by intrusive_thoughts_1