Yesterday afternoon, the neighbor’s cat decided to kill a young, wild rabbit in our front yard. Being a big fan of rabbits, and having considered planting a garden just for the wild rabbits to graze, I was out the door and hissing at the cat within seconds. The rabbit, only lightly wounded at that point, ran to my mailbox post, and seeing me, decided that flight was the best option. Unfortunately, the neighbor’s cat, egged on by young neighborhood boys, noticed the streak of brown fur and attacked it under my car in the driveway.

I chased the cat and rabbit around the back of the house, where I finally got the cat to let go. The rabbit, now having trouble using it’s back legs and partially degloved (over the shoulders, along the rump, under the left rear hip, and on his belly), was caught 15 feet later and brought inside. We treated him with cottonballs soaked in hydrogen peroxide, checked for signs of shock, and locked him in a pet carrier with a bowl of water, and blocks of alfafa and timothy hay.

The local exotics vet is too busy to look at him today, and his staff really doesn’t want him to take the case. I’ve left messages with two wildlife rehabilitators hoping to get his puncture wounds treated to stave off infection. So far, I’ve received no returned calls. I’ll do my best to rehabilitate this rabbit myself, if I have to. I’ve got sulfa drugs and can go pick up some puppy Frontline for his flea and tick infestation. Update: while reviewing and rewriting portions of this post, I got a call from Second Chance wildlife. Two rehabilitators are nearby, and one will be giving me a call.

The rabbit survived the first hour, the night, and has defecated–all very good signs. If the punctures can be treated, infection staved off, and the parasites removed, he’ll survive and be able to be released.

In the meantime, I’m counting down the minutes before I have to go take my wife’s cat to a veterinary opthamologist to have his irises evaluated: his pupils are much larger than the other cats, and she was concerned that it could be an early sign of glaucoma or cataracts. Our regular vet, Dr. Neubauer, examined his eyes for several minutes before determining that it’s neither cataracts nor early stage glaucoma, and is probably neurological, but definitely outside of his expertise. Hence, the referral.