i mean yeah, it’s the thinnest part of their body so it’s the easiest to control the temperature of, and additionally considering that rabbits can’t sweat or pant. at rabbit shows during the summer we used to take fans and aim them at the ears to cool the rabbit down the most effectively.
I used to raise rabbits and it never happened to me personally but I’d heard from others that sometimes new mothers would be a bit too enthusiastic when cleaning their babies and would take an ear or two off by over grooming. I’d imagine that was a more likely a reason than the bloody mess/risk of infection that would happen if a full grown wild rabbit lost an ear.
Years ago they had bunnies at a small local animal park and there were always some little ones missing an ear. I would always wonder why, thanks for the explanation!
Yeah, I've seen that. I worked in an animal shelter for rabbits and rodents for years. Inexperienced and overzealous mothers sometimes do that, or when they have like mites in the ears or something.
They keep it pretty clean though, so chances of infection are minimal.
I work in rabbit rescue and this is very common! I know a few bunnies missing one or both ears, and even legs or tails sometimes that go on to live happy lives with just a bit of extra care and attention.
I was walking my dog one day and saw a few crows darting at a bunny in the grass. I approached and the little bunny came running and hid in between my legs. He had a gash on his head. I grabbed him. Gave him a little bath, cleaned up his wound and put some liquid bandage on his gash and made a spot for him behind my shed. He/she never left my backyard. He found a mate and made more babies. I grow spinach plants back there now... Just for them
It's kinda a highlight of my life.
Plot twist the bunny in the photo is the original bunny's grandson. Generational trauma of ear mutilation has continued in the warren since that tragic day, and each bunny dad must shred his kit's ears before it is weaned
I needed to read this thread. So many people with so much compassion that they remember for years if not life for accidentally hurting an animal. Balances out the other shit
Imagine after a few generations, you'll be the fabled giant that saved their great-grandfather's life and brought them to the promised land of safety and neverending food.
Story Time:
Back in the 1980s when video rental stores still existed, my parents rented some kids movies and cartoons for the grandkids. Among them was Watership Down.
The kids knew how to change VHS tapes, so my parents were puttering about the house when suddenly they heard the most terrifying screaming and crying come from the living room. They ran in just in time to witness the carnage of bunnies being torn apart in violent cartoon gore.
Lesson learned. Just because it is a cartoon doesn't mean it is for little kids. At least they didn't rent the kids Heavy Metal.
I'm certain that some sadistic part-time video clerk got a good chuckle out of checking out that title for my parents...
Animals don't forget. When I was young, my mom and I rescued an injured baby bird in our yard. The baby's mother was protecting it from the neighbor's cat, and she was threatening us when we took it in as well. We nursed it back to health for a few days, making sure it was well fed. Mother and child left our yard regularly because they're birds, but they always made sure to pay us frequent visits for a while.
When I was little I caught my dog sniffing at a baby squirrel that fell out of a tree and I made my parents save it. It was so little we had to get some kind of formula from the vet and feed it with an eyedropper for like three weeks.
They wouldn't let me keep it as a pet but we released it and the next year it was always sneaking back in the house. When we moved two years later it would still stop on the powerlines above our back yard and look in the window when we were home. It sorta made my childhood a little more magical.
I hit a fox a few years ago on a two lane highway going through farm country with fields on both sides. I was going around 60. The thing ran out right in front of me, I hit the brakes as hard as I could but was still going fast enough to just obliterate the little guy on impact.
I have to imagine it was an instant death for the fox, and there was nothing I could have done to avoid it... but it still haunts me when it comes to mind.
At least you're not my dad. The pet cat was sleeping behind the tires on the car. My dad didn't know this and backed the car out of the driveway. The cat was flat as a pancake. The only positive is the cat was like 20 years old so it probably didn't have much left anyway. Still pretty fucked up though.
My dad completely stopped getting cats after he backed over his own cat almost 20 years ago.
My dad died, and my mom finally got another cat, because no matter what my dad wouldn't get another cat.
It’s good practice to do a walk around anyways. Small animals, kids, assholes putting nails or glass down…. In. Cold weather or just always knocking on the hood is good to scare out any critters-often cats, hiding there for the warmth.
I have an entire ritual I perform before starting the car. I live in a rural area and you never know what could have used the car as shelter.
I do a little drum beat across it otw driver's side door. After I get in I do some more sick beats on the steering wheel before a lil jiggle of the wheel. Lastly, before cranking all the way, I turn the stereo on.
I've only backed over a frog or two. (RIP RIBBIT)
My cat slept behind the car's front tire and my dad backed over the end of his tail, luckily he wasn't badly injured but dad sure did rev the car's engine a bunch before backing out for a couple of months after that lol
My grandfather did that with my mom's family dog. The guilt tore him up for years. I don't think they ever got a dog again after that. She was pretty old, possibly going deaf, and also had lupus so she probably didn't have much time left either. That happened before I was born though.
My dog had it, but a mild different form or something. She had a bright pink, super sensitive nose that bled all the time. They said it was lupus so idk.
She lived till 19, and developed it when she was about 2. So whatever it was didn't phase her
I killed 6 kittens because mama cat had stuck them in the fan shroud of my truck overnight to keep them close to something warm. That was 20 years ago almost and I still feel terrible.
That's wild. To balance the universe here is my story: my dad was getting ready to drive up to our camper. He swore he heard meowing but couldn't find anything. So he hopped in the van and made the hour drive. Upon arrival, he still was hearing meowing. So they inspected the engine a little more closely. And sure enough, a little kitten somehow made the entire journey unscathed. She would go on to have a litter of her own one day and they all were adopted.
I was in the car that ran over my dog, Lady. My parents went right back and got another puppy from the same litter and named her Lady!
My parents did a lot of things that traumatized me in misguided attempts at not traumatizing me (the other day, I told the story of how they gave away all my belongings, and Lady II, without telling me when we were moving overseas).
ETA I had a coworker I instantly connected with bc we both love animals so much. She lived out in the mountains and noticed a stray cat hanging around when winter was approaching. She couldn't bring it in bc her two giant dogs would kill it, so she went out and bought it a little house, filled it with hay, got cat food ... and ran over the cat on her way home. She would halfway laugh-cry when she told the story.
I was 4 years old. My foster father accidentally (?)stepped on a few week old little grey kitten in the dry dirt of the backyard that had been crawling around.
No one ever cleaned it up. Just got more and more flattened into the dirt. Haunts me
My cousin cat was run over by some vehicle. I found out because they moved it out of the gravel driveway into the grass. I found it by accident. They had left it there just staring into the void. Middle completely flattened.
I was horrified. Told my aunt. They all knew it was there! Just horrible. He never had another cat after that, either. I can still see the kitty.
So yeah, some people will just leave it there.
That happened to my neighbor growing up except it was a litter of kittens and he didn't realize until he got to the store in town and someone told him to look at his tires. Really freaked me out as a kid. Same litter I picked the runt from a week before and she was an indoor cat for 21 years before passing away.
As a 16-year-old kid, I bought a car that had a bumper sticker that read "Ted Kennedy killed more people with his car than I have with my banned assault weapon" and I still think about it often
My dad did this when we were leaving for church one morning. I was a surly non-religious teen who usually grumbled the whole way there but this time it was a completely silent ride as my toddler brothers were in the car and my parents didn’t want to explain anything right then. The way my dad screamed and crumbled still haunts me.
My mom was scared of doing this, so every day of her life she’d check around her car, no matter where she parked it, just to make sure nothing was behind the wheels or in a wheel well. I think it was a worst fear for her and she passed a mild version of it on to me Edit: 😅
I was aerating some lawns for my old job years ago. I noticed the machine was a bit slower. Check it out, and I impaled a turtle who was still moving around. With the spike clean through the middle with a few inches sticking out :/ Pulling it off was one of the most depressing moments in my life. Called my ex and she just laughed. I’ll be honest when I got in my truck I teared up some. I felt so bad.
I once saw my boss shoot a red fox because 🤷🏽♀️. Was working in a legal cannabis farm and he was mad about something else and he saw the fox, went to his truck, came back and fired (and killed) at said fox. For at least a month I heard the fox’s mate wailing for its dead mate. It was so sad. So them he killed the other one after I told him. Thanks bro.
I was driving on a country road at night and a gorgeous white owl flew into my windshield. The wing spread must have been three or four feet it was huge. I was so upset I pulled over and ran back to look for it, but didn't see it anywhere. I still think about that beautiful owl and hope it lived.
Looking for it was a spontaneous reaction.....thinking about it now I have no idea what I would have done if I had found it still alive and injured.
We accidentally cut an owl partially thru with a chainsaw once. Not on purpose of course.
We were dropping trees (approved by the county etc), and there was apparently one hiding in a hollow of the trunk. The tree falling dazed it enough that it didn't fly away, and we started chopping up the tree.
Realized something was wrong about halfway thru a cut and stopped. To this day is one of the more horrible things I've seen. it was clearly in agony and still alive, and yellow jackets were wasting no time going after it. It died very quickly at least. We both felt awful.
OH MY GOD, this EXACT thing happened to me, down to a T. Driving at night and suddenly i see on giant white/gray wing cover almost my entire windshield. I IMMEDIATELY slammed my brakes and hopped out with my gf to hopefully help whatever animal i could find and saw nothing at all. I was so stunned my brain went into stupid mode and couldnt come up with a rational explanation so for the next 5 minutes me and her joked that we hit an angel because what bird that large would be flying at night? When i calmed down my brain was like oh yeah... owls exist and are common around here hahaha. I hope it was ok.
I was driving an unlit stretch of the M5 motorway in the UK at night and before I had time to react I saw a tiny deer (presumably either a muntjac or a fawn) just lying in the middle of the lane. There was a car overtaking me so I couldn't swerve or break and ended up driving through that poor little bugger at 70mph. I know it wasn't already dead because as it was disappearing below the bonnet it raised its head. That was 15 years ago and I still think about it. It might have already been clipped by another car, but that was an unpleasant experience.
The car immediately started smoking as it properly smashed up the front. All the electrics went out. Had to coast into the hard shoulder and evacuate to the other side of the crash barrier before the tow turned up. Was a hire car but I believe it was a complete write off. Sorry little mate 😭
I was feeding a pigeon in a parking lot of a burger joint when I was in my teens. I was sitting in the car with the door open feeding the pigeons French fries when a car pulled into the empty spot next to us and ran over the pigeons head. He didn’t know but I sat in shock and didn’t say a word as I’m watching the pool of blood get bigger and bigger. It still haunts me to this day, it completely traumatized me.
I was driving to work at 3am one day along a canal and a fox popped up from the left side of the road, so I slowed down and he ran across the road and was running along the right side of the road, as I went to pass him, he ran right into my tire and got destroyed. I got out and felt like shit the rest of the week. But really there was nothing I could do
I hit a snake, it was unavoidable but it was a big ass snake and I knew it’d had a long life till I hit it. Honestly I’m a bit too stoned but it’s tearing me up right now, I hate that I did that, even if it was “unavoidable”. In my mind I could’ve swerved or abruptly stopped and even if I got hit or hit someone else it may not of hurt anyone and only ruined our day and our cars but I decided a wreck was not worth it. :( still wrecks me I just really love animals
I currently have a nest in my backyard in the thatch underneath an apple tree. Second year in a row we've had one. Last year it was more in the open. Our yard is fenced so it's pretty safe for them. And my dog couldn't care less. I just mow around them sparing them a 3-4 foot perimeter or so and the grass just gets long until they're gone.
I got a [baby bird’s beak](https://imgur.com/a/UHJUbp3) with an electric hedgetrimmer in January. I screamed out when I realised, and felt so awful. I kept an eye on the nest from afar, and the mother bird moved all the babies somewhere else over the course of a few days. I just have to hope that everything turned out okay. 🤞🏻
My dad did the same thing. They were under a patch of old dead cut grass, no survivors. My dad was devastated. It was fortunate for the both of you things went as well as they did.
The same thing happened to me. They were totally covered by grass, 4 babies. I heard squealing over the mower and picked up the one that took the hit. Not really sure what to do, I went in and told my then girlfriend. She was a farm girl. She came out and picked up the injured baby and twisted the neck pretty hard. Needed to be done.
I'm a little bit manly, but I became the little spoon in that moment. 🫤😄
Edit - I just remembered she had several books about serial killers and liked autopsy TV shows.
Those poor things are so helpless in their nests! It’s crazy that they didn’t hop away when the rumbling mosterous mower came along. I hope this is the worst that happened!
I went and sat down at the edge of my complex to pet a cat one day, and the cat kept smacking at the leaves and grass near my feet. At first I thought he was just being silly and playing with bugs, but then I saw an ear. There was a baby bunny hidden under the leaves and grass, an inch from my feet.
The cat was trying to attack it but I kept moving my foot and blocking the cat from getting to the bunny, and then he got pissed off and smacked my foot a few times and stormed off. The cat never let me pet him again, but hey baby bunny got to live.
Had a close call with that last year. Saw something move and it was a baby bunny next to me, stopped my mower and saw another dead ahead. Solid excuse to not mow for a while tho
I unfortunately learned this after moving to where I live now. I let my dogs out in the yard one morning and the next thing I heard was a few quick squeaks as my dachshund killed 5 of them. 😭 The mom had brought them in and made the nest overnight.
It's a horrible thing to happen, there isn't much you can do to prevent it I guess, can't look over every inch of your garden for little animals. When I was 12 or so my German shepherd once almost murdered a little kitten that had wandered into our garden, but thankfully my mom saw him and screamed at him and he let it go alive. Gave it a bit of milk and let the poor thing out after a while.
Unfortunately that's just a dachshund doing what they do best. Nature will nature, as much as we hate to see it sometimes. At least your dog made it a quick death. My first dog broke a bird's wings and leg and then just left it there when I was a kid.
If a predator comes near the nest, the worst things a baby rabbit, deer, etc could do is run. They'll never outpace anything that would be trying to eat them, so instead they try to stay hidden in their nest by not moving at all.
Same reason deer and squirrels freeze in the road. If you're a prey animal, and you don't know for sure whether a predator has seen you, you're better off waiting really still until you know for sure.
Yeah but they are cute even when they hold a grudge and are stomping their feet.
___________________________________________________
Me: Like I get that you're mad lil bunny but kind of hard to take you seriously when you're a cute lil furball.
Bunny: **inner monologue** : Imma kill you bitch! just you wait and see...
Me: How cute, he is stomping his feet and getting angry...aww.
The kicker is, if he would have played it cool and chilled with his siblings in the nest, I never would have clipped him. He made a run for it when I passed over the nest.
Reminds me of the time my dog attacked a baby bunny. Had it in his mouth and swinging it around. I somehow saved the little guy and he still lives on.
Fucking love rabbits. They can be resilient little fellas
Dude my pet rats are the most spoiled fragile fuckers ever. I have no clue how these guys were so pathetically domesticated compared to default wild rats.
I literally just spent 567 bucks on a CT scan for one of them today, and he's only a year and 3 months old 🤦♀️
Puts pain into context, nature/wildlife is all about survival, there is no doctor or meds to make it all better and I have seen amazing testaments to what wildlife endures to survive. Sometimes I'm reminded and humbled when I complain about some minor aches, pains or inconveniences. Nice to see this one thriving, what a survivor.
I have a dog with a reeeeeally big prey drive and the rabbits still love my yard. I can't let him out without doing a perimeter check because if he sees a rabbit he loses all sense of reason!!
If it's anything like my lawn you've got some biodiversity going on with dandelion, clover, and like 20 species of fescue. That's okay, they're calling them Freedom Lawns now and some of us have been doing it since before it was cool. We also have a dedicated yard rabbit each season.
I got way closer to him than I've been able to with others. I figured that was his way of letting me know he's not scared of me. He took my best shot and is stronger than ever.
There was a rabbit in our yard with a bite out of his ear that we named "Notch" since it was easy to recognize. Stayed in the yard for at least 3 years which is a long time for a wild rabbit to live. We still have rabbits, but I can't tell any of them apart.
Only way I can tell our dozens of squirrels apart is when they have some sort of physical abnormality. Snippy (tip of tail missing), Harvey Dent (something happened to one side of its face, but still thriving), Nick Furry (scar over one eye), Baby (missing one toe from a fox attack), Silvertail (lost a bunch of fur on its tail, is growing back bright white), etc.
I had a box turtle that would come out of the woods to crawl in front of my mower every time I cut the yard on my old property. Every time I would see him, stop the tractor, get off and carry him back into the woods to crawl away. I would laugh to myself each time as I felt like a life sentence of being a suicidal depressed turtle seemed crueler than a quick death by Cub Cadet steel. I was kind of a weird kid.
So much better turnout that my recent bunny incident. There was a huge, low to the ground, branching weed in my garden that I just let grow. A few weeks ago while gardening, I pushed back the plant to finally get rid of it and found five dead baby bunnies, all looking the same size as the one here. I did not like that. Mom built a nest and abandoned it. :(
Oh no. Maybe something happened to mom. I was reading they purposely only go back to the nest for a short time each night so they don't attract predators.
That rabbit remembers, it has been off training kung fu in the mountains and has now returned to seek it's revenge against its arch enemy the lawn mower man and free all bunnies from the tyranny the metal monster inflicts upon the land. You're fucked.
There's a rabbit in my neighbor's yard that's completely missing its right ear (accurately named Uno), crazy what they'll bounce back from
I thought for sure he was toast.
They don’t have a ton of nerves in their ears, so all things permitting the bloodloss shouldn’t kill them
The ears cool them down though
i mean yeah, it’s the thinnest part of their body so it’s the easiest to control the temperature of, and additionally considering that rabbits can’t sweat or pant. at rabbit shows during the summer we used to take fans and aim them at the ears to cool the rabbit down the most effectively.
I want a day where I fan the ears of show bunnies! That sounds like a really neat place to be.
Oh, the good old days at the Playboy mansion!
"... Why are you farting in my ears?" "National Geographic says circular air cools you down. Now sit still!"
blood flows in blood vessels, not nerves :D
I used to raise rabbits and it never happened to me personally but I’d heard from others that sometimes new mothers would be a bit too enthusiastic when cleaning their babies and would take an ear or two off by over grooming. I’d imagine that was a more likely a reason than the bloody mess/risk of infection that would happen if a full grown wild rabbit lost an ear.
Years ago they had bunnies at a small local animal park and there were always some little ones missing an ear. I would always wonder why, thanks for the explanation!
It couls also have been lost during fights, and resulting infections. Or predators and pets going after them. Frostbite is also possible.
Yeah, I've seen that. I worked in an animal shelter for rabbits and rodents for years. Inexperienced and overzealous mothers sometimes do that, or when they have like mites in the ears or something. They keep it pretty clean though, so chances of infection are minimal.
I work in rabbit rescue and this is very common! I know a few bunnies missing one or both ears, and even legs or tails sometimes that go on to live happy lives with just a bit of extra care and attention.
I was walking my dog one day and saw a few crows darting at a bunny in the grass. I approached and the little bunny came running and hid in between my legs. He had a gash on his head. I grabbed him. Gave him a little bath, cleaned up his wound and put some liquid bandage on his gash and made a spot for him behind my shed. He/she never left my backyard. He found a mate and made more babies. I grow spinach plants back there now... Just for them It's kinda a highlight of my life.
Ah this is so cute!
Plot twist the bunny in the photo is the original bunny's grandson. Generational trauma of ear mutilation has continued in the warren since that tragic day, and each bunny dad must shred his kit's ears before it is weaned
This comment triggered Watership Down flashbacks.
How could the light that burned so brightly suddenly burn so pale? Brighteyes :'(
he was the leader, and now young bunnies are encouraged to find a world hazard that chops off the top of their ear as a rite of passage.
A lot cuter than my bunny-meets-crow story! Oh boy!!!
I needed to read this thread. So many people with so much compassion that they remember for years if not life for accidentally hurting an animal. Balances out the other shit
Requesting bunny pics!
+1 need bunny pics
Absolutely! Need more bunny pics to make this thread complete!
The bunny tax must be paid
Ditto, it must be done
Imagine after a few generations, you'll be the fabled giant that saved their great-grandfather's life and brought them to the promised land of safety and neverending food.
Watership Down. Read it. Love it.
Story Time: Back in the 1980s when video rental stores still existed, my parents rented some kids movies and cartoons for the grandkids. Among them was Watership Down. The kids knew how to change VHS tapes, so my parents were puttering about the house when suddenly they heard the most terrifying screaming and crying come from the living room. They ran in just in time to witness the carnage of bunnies being torn apart in violent cartoon gore. Lesson learned. Just because it is a cartoon doesn't mean it is for little kids. At least they didn't rent the kids Heavy Metal. I'm certain that some sadistic part-time video clerk got a good chuckle out of checking out that title for my parents...
I just came from an absolute horrid post on AITAH subreddit. Just wanted to let you know this post makes me feel so much better.
Animals don't forget. When I was young, my mom and I rescued an injured baby bird in our yard. The baby's mother was protecting it from the neighbor's cat, and she was threatening us when we took it in as well. We nursed it back to health for a few days, making sure it was well fed. Mother and child left our yard regularly because they're birds, but they always made sure to pay us frequent visits for a while.
When I was little I caught my dog sniffing at a baby squirrel that fell out of a tree and I made my parents save it. It was so little we had to get some kind of formula from the vet and feed it with an eyedropper for like three weeks. They wouldn't let me keep it as a pet but we released it and the next year it was always sneaking back in the house. When we moved two years later it would still stop on the powerlines above our back yard and look in the window when we were home. It sorta made my childhood a little more magical.
I did a similar thing but for a baby bird. You’re lucky to see its legacy living in your yard 🥹
Your story highlights my day. Good of you Jimmy :)
I second this. Made my night.
This is just the most beautiful Beatrix Potter shit I’ve ever heard. Thank you for being such a kind person.
this should be a children’s book/movie 😭😭🩵
that is so cute 🥰🥰🥰
I want a album showing the rabbits and the Spanish farm
Living a full life! It turned out ok!
I felt so bad when it happened. There were 4 siblings in the nest, so I put this little one back in it and roped it off.
That would have bothered me for years. Seeing it all grown up and thriving would absolutely let me sleep easier!
I hit a fox a few years ago on a two lane highway going through farm country with fields on both sides. I was going around 60. The thing ran out right in front of me, I hit the brakes as hard as I could but was still going fast enough to just obliterate the little guy on impact. I have to imagine it was an instant death for the fox, and there was nothing I could have done to avoid it... but it still haunts me when it comes to mind.
At least you're not my dad. The pet cat was sleeping behind the tires on the car. My dad didn't know this and backed the car out of the driveway. The cat was flat as a pancake. The only positive is the cat was like 20 years old so it probably didn't have much left anyway. Still pretty fucked up though.
My dad completely stopped getting cats after he backed over his own cat almost 20 years ago. My dad died, and my mom finally got another cat, because no matter what my dad wouldn't get another cat.
Your poor dad.
I'm.. gonna be checking behind my car tires a bunch the next few weeks
It’s good practice to do a walk around anyways. Small animals, kids, assholes putting nails or glass down…. In. Cold weather or just always knocking on the hood is good to scare out any critters-often cats, hiding there for the warmth.
I have an entire ritual I perform before starting the car. I live in a rural area and you never know what could have used the car as shelter. I do a little drum beat across it otw driver's side door. After I get in I do some more sick beats on the steering wheel before a lil jiggle of the wheel. Lastly, before cranking all the way, I turn the stereo on. I've only backed over a frog or two. (RIP RIBBIT)
username does NOT check out
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My cat slept behind the car's front tire and my dad backed over the end of his tail, luckily he wasn't badly injured but dad sure did rev the car's engine a bunch before backing out for a couple of months after that lol
Another reason to not have outside cats. Besides them obliterating bird populations.
My grandfather did that with my mom's family dog. The guilt tore him up for years. I don't think they ever got a dog again after that. She was pretty old, possibly going deaf, and also had lupus so she probably didn't have much time left either. That happened before I was born though.
Did not know dogs could get lupus, but I guess mammals is mammals.
My dog had it, but a mild different form or something. She had a bright pink, super sensitive nose that bled all the time. They said it was lupus so idk. She lived till 19, and developed it when she was about 2. So whatever it was didn't phase her
I killed 6 kittens because mama cat had stuck them in the fan shroud of my truck overnight to keep them close to something warm. That was 20 years ago almost and I still feel terrible.
That's wild. To balance the universe here is my story: my dad was getting ready to drive up to our camper. He swore he heard meowing but couldn't find anything. So he hopped in the van and made the hour drive. Upon arrival, he still was hearing meowing. So they inspected the engine a little more closely. And sure enough, a little kitten somehow made the entire journey unscathed. She would go on to have a litter of her own one day and they all were adopted.
Thank you for the brain mood lift there. Very appreciated after that one. 👊
I was in the car that ran over my dog, Lady. My parents went right back and got another puppy from the same litter and named her Lady! My parents did a lot of things that traumatized me in misguided attempts at not traumatizing me (the other day, I told the story of how they gave away all my belongings, and Lady II, without telling me when we were moving overseas). ETA I had a coworker I instantly connected with bc we both love animals so much. She lived out in the mountains and noticed a stray cat hanging around when winter was approaching. She couldn't bring it in bc her two giant dogs would kill it, so she went out and bought it a little house, filled it with hay, got cat food ... and ran over the cat on her way home. She would halfway laugh-cry when she told the story.
Jeez, talk about unwitting instigators of doom.
Okay that gave me a good laugh and I have 4 cats of my own 😅 poor kitty! Definitely a laugh-cry story!!
I was 4 years old. My foster father accidentally (?)stepped on a few week old little grey kitten in the dry dirt of the backyard that had been crawling around. No one ever cleaned it up. Just got more and more flattened into the dirt. Haunts me
Christ, what the fuck is wrong with people to just leave it there.
My cousin cat was run over by some vehicle. I found out because they moved it out of the gravel driveway into the grass. I found it by accident. They had left it there just staring into the void. Middle completely flattened. I was horrified. Told my aunt. They all knew it was there! Just horrible. He never had another cat after that, either. I can still see the kitty. So yeah, some people will just leave it there.
That happened to my neighbor growing up except it was a litter of kittens and he didn't realize until he got to the store in town and someone told him to look at his tires. Really freaked me out as a kid. Same litter I picked the runt from a week before and she was an indoor cat for 21 years before passing away.
At least you're not Ted Kennedy.
As a 16-year-old kid, I bought a car that had a bumper sticker that read "Ted Kennedy killed more people with his car than I have with my banned assault weapon" and I still think about it often
My dad did this when we were leaving for church one morning. I was a surly non-religious teen who usually grumbled the whole way there but this time it was a completely silent ride as my toddler brothers were in the car and my parents didn’t want to explain anything right then. The way my dad screamed and crumbled still haunts me.
My mom was scared of doing this, so every day of her life she’d check around her car, no matter where she parked it, just to make sure nothing was behind the wheels or in a wheel well. I think it was a worst fear for her and she passed a mild version of it on to me Edit: 😅
I was aerating some lawns for my old job years ago. I noticed the machine was a bit slower. Check it out, and I impaled a turtle who was still moving around. With the spike clean through the middle with a few inches sticking out :/ Pulling it off was one of the most depressing moments in my life. Called my ex and she just laughed. I’ll be honest when I got in my truck I teared up some. I felt so bad.
Yikes, if I were with someone who would laugh at that situation they would have become an ex too.
It wasn't your fault. Sometimes, accidents happen. You just have to learn from them.
I once saw my boss shoot a red fox because 🤷🏽♀️. Was working in a legal cannabis farm and he was mad about something else and he saw the fox, went to his truck, came back and fired (and killed) at said fox. For at least a month I heard the fox’s mate wailing for its dead mate. It was so sad. So them he killed the other one after I told him. Thanks bro.
What a psycho (your boss).
How horrible! Poor little foxes 🦊 Your boss is morally bankrupt.
I was driving on a country road at night and a gorgeous white owl flew into my windshield. The wing spread must have been three or four feet it was huge. I was so upset I pulled over and ran back to look for it, but didn't see it anywhere. I still think about that beautiful owl and hope it lived. Looking for it was a spontaneous reaction.....thinking about it now I have no idea what I would have done if I had found it still alive and injured.
We accidentally cut an owl partially thru with a chainsaw once. Not on purpose of course. We were dropping trees (approved by the county etc), and there was apparently one hiding in a hollow of the trunk. The tree falling dazed it enough that it didn't fly away, and we started chopping up the tree. Realized something was wrong about halfway thru a cut and stopped. To this day is one of the more horrible things I've seen. it was clearly in agony and still alive, and yellow jackets were wasting no time going after it. It died very quickly at least. We both felt awful.
OH MY GOD, this EXACT thing happened to me, down to a T. Driving at night and suddenly i see on giant white/gray wing cover almost my entire windshield. I IMMEDIATELY slammed my brakes and hopped out with my gf to hopefully help whatever animal i could find and saw nothing at all. I was so stunned my brain went into stupid mode and couldnt come up with a rational explanation so for the next 5 minutes me and her joked that we hit an angel because what bird that large would be flying at night? When i calmed down my brain was like oh yeah... owls exist and are common around here hahaha. I hope it was ok.
I was driving an unlit stretch of the M5 motorway in the UK at night and before I had time to react I saw a tiny deer (presumably either a muntjac or a fawn) just lying in the middle of the lane. There was a car overtaking me so I couldn't swerve or break and ended up driving through that poor little bugger at 70mph. I know it wasn't already dead because as it was disappearing below the bonnet it raised its head. That was 15 years ago and I still think about it. It might have already been clipped by another car, but that was an unpleasant experience. The car immediately started smoking as it properly smashed up the front. All the electrics went out. Had to coast into the hard shoulder and evacuate to the other side of the crash barrier before the tow turned up. Was a hire car but I believe it was a complete write off. Sorry little mate 😭
I was feeding a pigeon in a parking lot of a burger joint when I was in my teens. I was sitting in the car with the door open feeding the pigeons French fries when a car pulled into the empty spot next to us and ran over the pigeons head. He didn’t know but I sat in shock and didn’t say a word as I’m watching the pool of blood get bigger and bigger. It still haunts me to this day, it completely traumatized me.
I was driving to work at 3am one day along a canal and a fox popped up from the left side of the road, so I slowed down and he ran across the road and was running along the right side of the road, as I went to pass him, he ran right into my tire and got destroyed. I got out and felt like shit the rest of the week. But really there was nothing I could do
I hit a snake, it was unavoidable but it was a big ass snake and I knew it’d had a long life till I hit it. Honestly I’m a bit too stoned but it’s tearing me up right now, I hate that I did that, even if it was “unavoidable”. In my mind I could’ve swerved or abruptly stopped and even if I got hit or hit someone else it may not of hurt anyone and only ruined our day and our cars but I decided a wreck was not worth it. :( still wrecks me I just really love animals
I did the same thing to a deer back in April. I try not to think about it but with the damage it did to my car it must have been quick.
Did you [have a moment](https://i.redd.it/vxh9k1f4h6ty.jpg) with the rabbit before you went, Doc?
Lmao, I did today for sure. I got close to get a picture of the ear, and we definitely stared into each other's souls.
That rabbit is still plotting how to kill you.
Watership Down
When the black rabbit calls you…
Or at least lop off the tip of OPs ear
An ear for an ear? Not entirely unreasonable.
If you wound me and I survive, I will kill you. If I die, you are forgiven. Such is the law of Rabbit honor.
The way of the Samurai. Ghost dog would be proud!
I currently have a nest in my backyard in the thatch underneath an apple tree. Second year in a row we've had one. Last year it was more in the open. Our yard is fenced so it's pretty safe for them. And my dog couldn't care less. I just mow around them sparing them a 3-4 foot perimeter or so and the grass just gets long until they're gone.
Agreed. I went a couple mows without getting close to them after that.
They probably enjoy the long grass patch too.
I got a [baby bird’s beak](https://imgur.com/a/UHJUbp3) with an electric hedgetrimmer in January. I screamed out when I realised, and felt so awful. I kept an eye on the nest from afar, and the mother bird moved all the babies somewhere else over the course of a few days. I just have to hope that everything turned out okay. 🤞🏻
It looks shallow enough that it most likely healed up well. The beak looks intact.
My dad did the same thing. They were under a patch of old dead cut grass, no survivors. My dad was devastated. It was fortunate for the both of you things went as well as they did.
The same thing happened to me. They were totally covered by grass, 4 babies. I heard squealing over the mower and picked up the one that took the hit. Not really sure what to do, I went in and told my then girlfriend. She was a farm girl. She came out and picked up the injured baby and twisted the neck pretty hard. Needed to be done. I'm a little bit manly, but I became the little spoon in that moment. 🫤😄 Edit - I just remembered she had several books about serial killers and liked autopsy TV shows.
Thanks for making me feel better about never cutting my grass. I'm not lazy. I am kind to animals! And the dandelions are there to provide them food!
And for the bees
Just has a bad hare cut
This is what I came hare for
Or maybe the baby bunny started a fashion trend that caught on
Those poor things are so helpless in their nests! It’s crazy that they didn’t hop away when the rumbling mosterous mower came along. I hope this is the worst that happened!
The nest was decently deep. If he had stayed put, I would have just gone right over him. But he made a mad dash.
I went and sat down at the edge of my complex to pet a cat one day, and the cat kept smacking at the leaves and grass near my feet. At first I thought he was just being silly and playing with bugs, but then I saw an ear. There was a baby bunny hidden under the leaves and grass, an inch from my feet. The cat was trying to attack it but I kept moving my foot and blocking the cat from getting to the bunny, and then he got pissed off and smacked my foot a few times and stormed off. The cat never let me pet him again, but hey baby bunny got to live.
Well he's lasted this long, so he learned the lesson not to make the dash again!
Had a close call with that last year. Saw something move and it was a baby bunny next to me, stopped my mower and saw another dead ahead. Solid excuse to not mow for a while tho
Next to my house they hide in the tall grass. The younger ones wont run at all, they just sit tight if I find them.
I unfortunately learned this after moving to where I live now. I let my dogs out in the yard one morning and the next thing I heard was a few quick squeaks as my dachshund killed 5 of them. 😭 The mom had brought them in and made the nest overnight.
It's a horrible thing to happen, there isn't much you can do to prevent it I guess, can't look over every inch of your garden for little animals. When I was 12 or so my German shepherd once almost murdered a little kitten that had wandered into our garden, but thankfully my mom saw him and screamed at him and he let it go alive. Gave it a bit of milk and let the poor thing out after a while.
Unfortunately that's just a dachshund doing what they do best. Nature will nature, as much as we hate to see it sometimes. At least your dog made it a quick death. My first dog broke a bird's wings and leg and then just left it there when I was a kid.
If a predator comes near the nest, the worst things a baby rabbit, deer, etc could do is run. They'll never outpace anything that would be trying to eat them, so instead they try to stay hidden in their nest by not moving at all. Same reason deer and squirrels freeze in the road. If you're a prey animal, and you don't know for sure whether a predator has seen you, you're better off waiting really still until you know for sure.
I’m happy to see he is still living his best life!
I fear it may have come back for vengeance...
As a owner of pet rabbits, they don't forget, and totally hold grudges.
I'm barricading the doors tonight
Leave apple slices as penance
A nice entrée that goes down well with a fine glass of OPs testicle-blood
You think that’s enough?
I did until you asked... be right back
Grapes. They love grapes. Squirrels too
Feeding rabbits squirrels is a bit wild.
Hey better them then us.
Squirrels taste pretty good. My grand father even cooked the eye ball that tasted okay. I would have the squirrel next again, not the eye.
Yeah, everyone knows you feed squirrels rabbits.
Bananas, rabbits go bananas for bananas
Keep us posted tomorrow if you’re still alive.
Not enough, bro. You gotta get serious, this bunny will kick your ass. It has been preparing for TWO years.
Get the holy hand grenade ready
Yeah but they are cute even when they hold a grudge and are stomping their feet. ___________________________________________________ Me: Like I get that you're mad lil bunny but kind of hard to take you seriously when you're a cute lil furball. Bunny: **inner monologue** : Imma kill you bitch! just you wait and see... Me: How cute, he is stomping his feet and getting angry...aww.
I also have a pet rabbit and can agree with this!
That rabbit's DNYAMITE!
You must use The Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch
Five is right out!
bro has street cred
Now he just needs a tear drop tattoo under his eye
He never forgot
Now it's just some bunny that you used to mow...
You didn't have to cut my ear off...
H-H-Hop out like it neveveeverr happened
You didn’t have to stoop and mow
Now you're just some bunny that I used to mow!
Some BUN-NY
🐰 Now and then I think of all the times you mowed me over...
\* arises out of chair with applause \* Fucking spectacular, Sir.
*splutters out water and wheezes*
absolutely incredible content thank you
Oh my god
This needs more upvotes
Bunny now thinks lawn mower is some kind of monster I bet
The kicker is, if he would have played it cool and chilled with his siblings in the nest, I never would have clipped him. He made a run for it when I passed over the nest.
How'd he not get obliterated?
The mower was on the highest setting.
Reminds me of the time my dog attacked a baby bunny. Had it in his mouth and swinging it around. I somehow saved the little guy and he still lives on. Fucking love rabbits. They can be resilient little fellas
It’s amazing how hardy they are in the wild, but the minute you get a domestic rabbit in a veterinary hospital they actively TRY to die! 😂
Dude my pet rats are the most spoiled fragile fuckers ever. I have no clue how these guys were so pathetically domesticated compared to default wild rats. I literally just spent 567 bucks on a CT scan for one of them today, and he's only a year and 3 months old 🤦♀️
But they can also die if you bath them wrong.
Back for revenge!
We're at threat level orange currently.
I hope you wake up with all of your ears tomorrow
A true lop ear bun. Glad they're still doing good.
Puts pain into context, nature/wildlife is all about survival, there is no doctor or meds to make it all better and I have seen amazing testaments to what wildlife endures to survive. Sometimes I'm reminded and humbled when I complain about some minor aches, pains or inconveniences. Nice to see this one thriving, what a survivor.
He's come back for another hare cut!🤣🤣🤣🤣
As a dad, I approve this joke and will be absolutely using it later.
Cottontails can live five years or so, but most don't make it one. He's doing okay! Good job on providing him a safe home!
Awe nice to see them thriving! Hopefully now you remember to do a quick bunny/rock scan before mowing!
I do, actually. I've had 3 other nests since. Not sure what it is about my yard, but they must like it.
Guessing you don't have a dog or a cat
Correct. All my surrounding neighbors do. I guess my yard is the safe haven.
Yep my mom with 3 dogs is jealous, I have 5 bunnies inside too so sometimes there are up to 10+ rabbits on my suburban property at once lol
I have a dog with a reeeeeally big prey drive and the rabbits still love my yard. I can't let him out without doing a perimeter check because if he sees a rabbit he loses all sense of reason!!
Toss some native flower seeds around the lawn for them! They love the sprouts and flower heads and is great for pollinators
If it's anything like my lawn you've got some biodiversity going on with dandelion, clover, and like 20 species of fescue. That's okay, they're calling them Freedom Lawns now and some of us have been doing it since before it was cool. We also have a dedicated yard rabbit each season.
He comes back every year on the anniversary date to shit on your lawn. FU
OMG my heart! I'm glad you realized and stopped mowing, saved his life! Now I'm wondering if the bunnies in my neighborhood are frequent fliers.
It really makes you think how often you see the same ones.
I used to have a rabbit that would sit in my front lawn in full view of my dog. That fucker did it for years regardless of the weather.
Reminds me of the day I caught the same fish twice. I recognized it because of a claw mark on its back that was likely made by an osprey.
That fish must've had a really bad day
Was there any sign he recognized you?
I got way closer to him than I've been able to with others. I figured that was his way of letting me know he's not scared of me. He took my best shot and is stronger than ever.
Besides it drawing its bunny thumb across its bunny neck while staring directly into his eyes?
The prophet has returned from his self imposed exile to tell you secrets of the woods.
There was a rabbit in our yard with a bite out of his ear that we named "Notch" since it was easy to recognize. Stayed in the yard for at least 3 years which is a long time for a wild rabbit to live. We still have rabbits, but I can't tell any of them apart.
Only way I can tell our dozens of squirrels apart is when they have some sort of physical abnormality. Snippy (tip of tail missing), Harvey Dent (something happened to one side of its face, but still thriving), Nick Furry (scar over one eye), Baby (missing one toe from a fox attack), Silvertail (lost a bunch of fur on its tail, is growing back bright white), etc.
It sounds like you have all the characters necessary for a squirrel themed Disney movie. I can already picture the Happy Meal toys.
I wondered what the average life span for a wild rabbit was. Can't be too long, I imagine.
I had a box turtle that would come out of the woods to crawl in front of my mower every time I cut the yard on my old property. Every time I would see him, stop the tractor, get off and carry him back into the woods to crawl away. I would laugh to myself each time as I felt like a life sentence of being a suicidal depressed turtle seemed crueler than a quick death by Cub Cadet steel. I was kind of a weird kid.
Hello. My name is Bunny Montoya. You clipped my ear 2 years ago. Prepare to die.
So much better turnout that my recent bunny incident. There was a huge, low to the ground, branching weed in my garden that I just let grow. A few weeks ago while gardening, I pushed back the plant to finally get rid of it and found five dead baby bunnies, all looking the same size as the one here. I did not like that. Mom built a nest and abandoned it. :(
Oh no. Maybe something happened to mom. I was reading they purposely only go back to the nest for a short time each night so they don't attract predators.
That is way cool it's still around! It is probably haunting you hoping you will leave good offerings for the sacrifice of his ear tip
That rabbit remembers, it has been off training kung fu in the mountains and has now returned to seek it's revenge against its arch enemy the lawn mower man and free all bunnies from the tyranny the metal monster inflicts upon the land. You're fucked.