Critter Adoption

Over the last year we have taken in a few orphan critters.  And we have truly enjoyed it.   I think our first "adoption" was a squirrel we rescued that had gotten away from the nest.  He was soooo stinking cute and so sweet.  He loved for us to cuddle him up and take care of him.  Unfortunately, our little Nutsy was accidentally released from the cage and our doors were open on that beautiful day.  We lost our little Nutsy that day, but have not forgotten that little one.  He had us wrapped.  And lately I find myself thinking about Nutsy because last week someone dropped by our house asking if we would take a wild baby bunny.  Oh.so.sweet!  This little guy is probably about two weeks old and totally dependent on us.  At this age baby rabbits are still nursing and at first this little guy refused to drink from the dropper of milk.  I am sure he had no idea what was happening to him, but since he would not drink I forced milk in him a little at a time.  We had recieved him Friday morning and he finally decided to started sucking on that dropper by Saturday evening.  I can hardly believe he figured it out before he dehydrated and died.  I have been so surprised by this little guy.  A rabbit taken from his momma is so rare to survive.... and yes, I realize that we still have a long way to go, but he is growing and seems to be thriving.  So here is our little guy, "Easter".  Caden named him that since it was Easter weekend and we recieved him on Good Friday.  And I could not resist this cute Easter basket picture...

You can really see how tiny he is in amongst those plastic eggs.  I really think rabbit babies are one of the cutest babies on this earth!  It amazes me how they transform those first couple of weeks right before your eyes and suddenly there eyes open and they look like a miniature rabbit.  They start out looking like rats and at about day 2-4 they look like little puppies.  And this little guy looks almost just like Nutsy except Nutsy had a tail, smaller ears, and slight differences in his body shape.  It really fascinates me how so many of God's creatures start out looking very much the same.

Over the last year we have also adopted (and I am not counting critters that we sought out... only ones that were needing a home) 4 Lop Rabbits, although one got sick and died.   Now, this little rabbit came to us this past Friday and today a friend deliverd two little yellow ducklings to our home. 

This is NOT our ducklings, but they look just like these.... just to show what they look like.  I just borrowed this pic of the iternet.  So, they are the typical little yellow ducklings and there is no telling what they will look like in a few months.  Super cute little guys!... well, hopefully gals... We are pretty sure our other four ducklings are one female and three males*, which is pretty much the opposite of what we were wanting.  ;(   Maybe these will be females.  Either way, we are having lots of fun adopting critters!!!

* Note: Our guessing the gender of our ducks is based on internet research.  Apparently, females "quack" and males sound "hoarse".  One of our 7 week old ducks has a definite quack while the other three hardly make a sound.  They actually sound like young chicks to me chirping hoarsely.