Captured a loose rabbit....

[Yield]

[align=center]I know there are a lot of people disagreeing with you right now Amy, but I completely agree with your decision. Just wanted to pop in and say this. I have done things that people disagreed with, and it's made me feel horrible, but in the end, to see that bunny happy, is what makes that decision worthwhile, and I think that's all that matters- you are looking out for the best interest of this bun.

When I first started owning rats and bunnies- that was the FIRST thing I learned. Cedar. Is. BAD! Any "first-rate" animal owner SHOULD know this if they did ANY research at all...

Plus the rabbit was skinny.

There is no way of knowing if those people took even decent care of Sawyer or gave him ANY attention besides feeding. It's safer to just keep the bun-because giving him back could mean a sad situation for him.

Sometimes the best and safest thing to do isn't labelled as the "most morally correct" thing.

^I know I'll probably get 'scolded' or 'slapped on the hand' for this, like I do for most of my posts that aren't blog posts... lol. But I don't care. :rollseyes:

 

[dainerra]

I'll just stop in long enough to side with the "original owner" crowd. a lost bunny can lose weight really fast! Shoot, I have people who think that my dogs are uncared for because they are "skinny" Actually, they are the weight they are supposed to be; everyone is just used to seeing fat dogs. If they get lost, does that mean that the finder is entitled to keep them because they are thin?

It's really sad to see people actively supporting these kind of assumptions. If something were to happen and your buns should get lost, I hope that karma doesn't come around and bite you in the butts.

ETA: no one is even arguing that this is "morally incorrect" No one even knows the details of this bunnies life. She said the bunny smelled like cedar, therefore the owners were clueless and he needed to be rescued. Ummm, my dog smells like cedar right now. That's because there is a cedar tree in the back yard and he rolled in the needles this morning. We don't even have cedar bedding. Someone who didn't care about their bunny wouldn't have been scanning the paper for a "found" ad. They would have just got another bunny as a replacement.

 

[Byfuzzerabbit]

I think you should give him back.

If you lost your rabbit wouldn't you want someone to give it back to you if it was found. I mean they could easily assume you were a horrible owner also. and assuming makes an ass out of you and me. I mean the rabbit could have a great home or a really bad one but we don't know this.

But keeping it just because you thought the rabbit was thin and smelled funky. Who knows how long the rabbit has been lost and it's spring "More saving. More doing." getting there gardening tools out, DUH!(My mom can spend hours planting her flowers, smelly dirt, and stuff) If the owners didn't care they wouldn't be looking.

I mean you could have saved the rabbit from a horrible home or it could have had a decent/great home and now there is a slave out there heartbroken trying to find there master. Crying like they just lost the most important thing in there life.

I would probably be crying like someone who just watched there mom die if I ever lost my rabbit.

I agree with dainerra that this is "morally incorrect".

 

[Nela]

I just wanted to take a moment to say that, while I don't always agree with Amy, nor she always agree with me, Amy only had the best intentions at heart. I've known Amy for many years through this forum and I have seen all she's done and the valuable info that she shares. Whilst I did let her know that I do not agree with this particular decision, I in no way want to encourage or even provoke a gang up on Amy. I do think quite a few don't agree and might be too scared to say so so in a way I am glad people are stating their opinions but please remember to try and be respectful, especially if you don't actually know Amy very well. Like I said, I do know that she had and has only good intentions for this guy. Acting out of passion doesn't make us right, but it doesn't necessarily make us bad people so I would caution people not to react too strongly. I tried to stay respectful in mine so I hope that will have come across properly but I did want to share so that people could think of certain things if they face a similar situation.

 

[DIpitydane]

I am not siding with any one view here and can say, I'm not sure what I'd do either....but I would share a story that might provide SOME insight....

We had a Beagle, who has passed in the last year, she lived to be 15, we loved her. She was a family member. She slept in our bed, shared our lives, recieved the best food, the best care, and our love. One night she got out our front door when I was carrying in groceries, I drove all night, up and down streets, yelling for her. I didn't find that her night and by the next day figured something terrible had happened to her. I got up that morning and started back making the same path I had that night when I spotted her in a neighbors yard! I stopped and thanked him and told him she was my dog and that I'd be taking her home now. He berrated me and scolded me and told me that I didn't deserve having Suzy because she was thin...she ate like she was starved and was hungry for attention. Well, what he did NOT know was that Suzy was 15....she was indeed VERY thin...the was thin because she was in end stage renal failure. She ate "like she was starved" because he offered her left over pot roast and raw bacon(I'm still thanking him to this day for the vomit stain she later left on our carpet), or COURSE she gobbled it up, especially since all she got at home was her prescription diet designed to take the work load off her failing kidneys. An yeah, she was ALWAYS starved for attention...or at least SHE thought so When I explained all of this he was humbled and let me take my dog home. But the point of my story is that you don't ALWAYS know the full story and I would have been devestated had we not gotten Sue back. I was angry that my neighbor made such accusations when he had no idea about her and that he had even tried to keep me from taking her back.

 

[missmerlin2010]

I agree you should bring her back to the previous owners.

 

[Kipcha]

Out of curiosity, what were his nails like when you found him? I think that's a pretty good indicator on what sort of attention he was getting before. I mean, unless you did them before the pics, they look great.

I do have to agree that he really doesn't look underweight in the pics when I go back and look, and his coat does look rather shiny. I've never seen a neglected/unhealthy bun with a nice looking coat like that...

Reading through some of these stories, I'm starting to feel really bad for the original owners . Anyone, unless they never allow their animals outside or near an open door, is capable of losing an animal so I don't think that means they should lose their right to their animal.

If I understood correctly, the people who caught him were drunk, right? I find it hard to believe that an unsocialised rabbit in an unfamiliar situation would be caught easily, especially by someone intoxicated. The more I think about it, the more it seems like he was probably a well handled pet...

 

[isabelly]

I had taken in a cat, several years ago. He was hiding behind a bushy tree in my parents yard and was dirty, skinny and fearful. After half a year he was stout and trusting. He was always an outdoor cat.

Last year his health declined. A neighbor took him in and called me (he has a cat door key with my number on it). I explained he has a cat door key and has in and out privileges. They inicated they would let him go. He did not return. I feared the worst and checked with the local vets only to find out that my cat had been treated and was now residing elsewhere. Furious, I went to this person's house and asked that they release my cat, they said that they had taken him to a local shelter. I burst into tears from the emotional overload and then they recanted and gave me my cat along with some medication the vet had prescribed. I administered the medication, but I could not make myself take away his in and out priviledges.

About a week after my cat went missing again. This time I retrieved his lifeless body from a neighbor's yard.

I know my neighbor meant well, they did not agree with allowing cats unsupervised access to the outdoors, but I really felt they had stolen some of what became the final days I had with my cat.

Please give back the rabbit. If you want, give them hay, give them advice, give them websites, give them adoption options, but don't take their rabbit from them unless you're very sure they are treating it badly. As others have noted, if the rabbit is not cringing at your touch, you should give the owners the benefit of a doubt.

 

[MelissaPenguin]

That is a tricky one! I would assume if the rabbit is friendly, maybe they were taking good care of him, and he would be happy to be home. Maybe talk to the original owners, and see if there's anyway you can help them. Maybe they are just inexperienced and don't know better - but would accept some advice about diet and housing. =)

 

[EileenH]

I'm coming in here late, but I will say this: if I lost a rabbit, or any pet, I would have flyers up on every telephone pole, supermarket & any other place I could think of saying I lost my rabbit and phone calls out to every rescue I could find.

Working in a wildlife hospital I get a lot of calls about found pets/lost pets. People who lose their pets are usually distraught over it. And then there are other ones, for example people who keephoming pigeons/white doves. Even banded, when we can locate the owner, if it is too far away or if the bird is injured, the owners are not interested in getting them back because they don't want any expense.

One call we got a few years agowas from someone that saw a van pull up on their block, open the side door, toss a white rabbit out of the van & drove away. The people that saw it didn't do anything until the same white rabbit was in their yard the next day & they were stuck with it.

And recently, a co-worker of mine found an African Grey parrot in an IKEA parking lot. She took him home and put the word out with local rescues. My co-worker was thrilled the next day to get a few calls from people who had lost birds like this one. One was actually the owner, who had even gotten a local cable station to videotape her looking for the bird. Turns out she is in the Marines and the bird got out when she got back from her last deployment. Reunion was wonderful; bird & owner knew each other & were happy. My co-worker was thrilled.

Until shenoticed the bird on Craig's list the next week.

Same co-worker found an old & disoriented cat on her stoop last week. She put flyers all over the place & the owners called her. Turns out the cat is 17 years old, had a stroke in January and now can only walk in circles, and is mostly blind.
They let the cat outside every day, and this time it got lost due to being disoriented.

I have little faith in people. If the owners of Amy's rabbit were desperately looking for their lost bunny, I'd like to see the effort they put into finding him.

 

[undergunfire]

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I feel strongly that there is no right or wrong decision here. I'm going with my heart on this one. The people closest to me agree with my decision, and honestly that is all that really matters.

The owners haven't put any ads on Craigslist or hung flyers up around town, no flyers at the pet stores/feed store in town either.

The person who emailed me could have not even been the owners. There is A LOT of foot traffic going between the shopping center & the bars downtown, where the bunny was found. The person who emailed me could have been someone who saw my friends trying to catch the bunny.

If the person who emailed me was the owners, then they never responded back to me when I asked them about their bunny so I could keep an eye out for it. I was trying to get more information on the bunny, like his age.



Anyway....Sawyer will be going to the vet tomorrow morning to be neutered. I am unsure if I will be keeping him or rehoming him to someone bunny savy. Odds are leaning towards keeping him...he's really made himself at home here and has bonded with Finley (my boyfriend).

 

[Nancy McClelland]

:yeahthat: All of our bunnies are rescues. In the last 9 years we have rescued bunnies from parks, neighborhoods and shelters where the were dumped or brought to by someone who found them running loose. In all that time we have seen all kinds of ads for "found" bunnies in the paper, but not one for a "lost" bunny. Something I shared with Amy in a PM was the story of Bonnie. Found her in my front yard one day and I knew she belonged to my neighbors one street over. I went over and caught them out in their front yard and asked them about their bunny as I hadn't seen it or the hutch in their backyard for a couple of weeks. "Oh, some friends of ours took her". Which was a gigantic load of what Oscar Mayer packages. All of our rabbits are pretty smart, but not one of them has ever opened up a door.

 

[EileenH]

If the person who emailed me was the owners, then they never responded back to me when I asked them about their bunny so I could keep an eye out for it. I was trying to get more information on the bunny, like his age.

This.

A normal response from a responsible pet owner would be to reply.
I would be e-mailing photos of my bunny to see if it was the same one, and responding. In other words, trying to find him.