Triggering

[poliphilo]

I took the gamble that no predator would come that close to the house in daytime- and left the rabbits unattended- and a fox came by and ate them....

This morning I'm thinking of all the things I ever did wrong in my lifetime. Believe me, it's quite a list.

Comments

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

No! Wretched foxes. Poor you.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks. :(

Can't blame the foxes. It's what they do.

[splodgenoodles.livejournal.com]

Daytime? I would have taken the same gamble - foxes here are night time creatures.

We all have such a list, but it's best put aside.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I don't usually dwell on the past; usually there are defences in place.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Oh, Tolkien! His Shire is scoured.

But you shouldn't blame yourself. You can't be a 24-hour rabbit guardian. You lost a gamble - but everything's a gamble, and you're bound to lose some.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

He wanted out into the wider world. He made it....

They were saying on Springwatch that in the wild 95% of rabbits don't even make it to adulthood.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

Oh, that is sad. But the only way to have kept them totally safe would have been to keep them indoors all the time and I'm sure they enjoyed having more freedom.

Sadly rabbits are prey animals. As you say, wild ones usually don't make it adulthood, hence why they have to breed so prolifically.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Towards the end they got a taste of the great outdoors. Tolkien revelled in it. Trigger found it a bit frightening- but then he found everything a bit frightening.

Guess he had a point.

[glitzfrau.livejournal.com]

Oh no! I am so sorry. Carnivores are rotten. I know, I have one as a pet. :-(

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

I've had cats. I found it hard to deal with all the chewed up little corpses.

[idahoswede.livejournal.com]

OH NO!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

:(

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

So very sorry.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

[ashlyme.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry. :(

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

[clindau.livejournal.com]

Nature red in tooth and claw, and all that. So sorry.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks

[puddleshark.livejournal.com]

I'm so sorry.

There's always such a delicate balance between protecting and keeping imprisoned... Not sure it's possible to get it right sometimes.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

We've been giving them more and more freedom and...

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

So sorry.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

Oh dear. I am really sorry this happened but one can't fall into the habit of blaming one's self and hind sight IS 20/20.
Poor bunnies.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

It was probably a very quick death.

[arielstarshadow.livejournal.com]

Sorry to hear of the loss of your rabbits!

Hmmmm - a single fox likely wouldn't eat multiple rabbits at once (they tend to grab one and go - carrying two or more is impossible). I'd suspect more than one predator at work if you lost multiple rabbits?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

I think the fox killed them both, removed one and then came back and took a big bite out of the other. If I hadn't intervened it would probably have come back yet again to remove the remnants.

[wyrmwwd.livejournal.com]

I hadn't read this far yet when I wrote my other post.

I am so very sorry about your rabbits :-( Our "separateness" may be an illusion, but it is a powerful one, and I hate losing my animal companions, too.

We all have a list. Mine includes a few mistakes that were disastrous to my animals, too.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

These guys weren't our close "companions". They lived
in their own space. One of them was friendly, the other not friendly at all.

I always feel with the death of an animal that I've somehow let them down.

[athenais.livejournal.com]

Oh dear, that's a sad ending. I understand that feeling of thinking you've let down your pets when they die.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It's the sort of ending they'd have had in the wild.

Other rabbits we've had have died of rabbit diseases and at the hands of the vet. They've all left me feeling bad.

[sorenr.livejournal.com]

I remember when a fox took my pet rabbit when I was a child. I was in tears, of course - what with bits of my rabbit scattered through the back yard - but my mother told me that yes, it was sad, but I was due for a birthday party at 10am, so she thought I should focus on a living friend, rather than a dead rabbit.

I went to the birthday party. It is one of the right things I did in my life.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yes.

Life goes on- and life is quite jolly, really. :)

[tamnonlinear.livejournal.com]

Well, damn. I'm sorry.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks.