Coffee Kindle

Fast forward 31 days –

Its late morning. We go into the garage to let the dog out (see, the dog sleeps in her crate, in the garage, especially in the winter). Out the corner of his eye, hubby sees a fur ball in Coffee’s cage.

He moves closer to investigate the scene further.

“Oh MY! HEY, Coffee had babies! AHHH! Coffee had babies!”

How is that possible? And how is it possible that we didn’t know? We had given them additional doses of ivermectin, taken them outside, and moved them to clean their cages multiple times over the last month. How did we not notice her pregnancy. Poor thing had no prenatal care or special treatment during her pregnancy!

I cautiously approach Coffee’s cage, sorta sad already that there are going to be multiple dead kits. And low and behold…they are all alive. “When do you think she kindled them?”

“Not too long ago…see here’s some blood…and they weren’t there here last night when I fed them and brought the dog in” was hubby’s response.

Now we enter into a whirlwind of activity! So much to do! And I feel incredibility guilty that she was 'neglected' until now. I had no idea that she was pregnant…much less prepared for a new litter!

Coffee is standing tall, over her litter, with her good eye looking out towards us.

The smallest kit is in her poop box (I hypothesize that she misinterpreted ‘labor and delivery’ for having a bowel movement.) It was still alive. The garage was quite chilly, however! The rest were just outside of the poop box, wiggling around.

We sprung into action. Lives depended on it!

“Lets clean all the cages. Let’s move Coffee and her kits into the large cage ("the Condo")…and Pepper into the smaller one. Let’s spray everything in the large cage with vinegar and isopropyl alcohol to erase the scent of the prior inhabitant, but maintain all of Coffee’s toys and dishes so the only smell is her own (maybe she’ll feel more comfortable).”

We moved the males into the same cage. And boy did they fight!

We cleaned their cages well (largely because of the earmite thing). We moved Coffee into the (infamous) laundry basket. And quickly consulted Dr. Google on how to make a rabbit nest. We got some old towels, collected as much as Coffees fur as possible, and transferred the kits from the ‘messy, small’ cage, into the ‘larger (now crystal clean) 2 story condo’ previously inhabited by Pepper. Finally, we allowed Coffee to reconnect with her kits, and brought the entire ‘bunny condo’ into the (warm) house.

Fresh food, water, veggies, hay, a nest, and we cover half the cage with large towels to induce warmth, calm, darkness, and a sense of safety.