Year of the Rabbit: Bunny in the Basement

If you've read this blog before, you know I often write about enjoying/attracting/coping with/tolerating/being annoyed with wildlife. It's a broad spectrum depending upon the species.

I delight in living in critter country. And for the most part I am thrilled to observe and support the animals that share my neck of the woods, well, apart from the occasional snake, but you will remember that rabbits were bringing me to my muddy knees last year before my big garden tour.

I even found it funny that last summer that my car was inhabited by chewing rodents and inhibited from running by their destruction. At least it's funny in hindsight. I stated that creating habitat has its limits, even for me.

I thought it couldn't get any crazier than that.

Last week the water alarm went off in the furnace room of our finished basement. We have this alarm because of the "Welcome to Minnesota" house-flooding incident that occurred the same week we moved here to this great state. Upon inspection of the alarm, my husband found the area dry and chalked it up to a low battery.

However, when he came out of the downstairs he looked me square in the eye and said, "By the way, there's a rabbit in the basement. Scared the crap outta me." Of all the things you expect to encounter in these spaces, a rabbit isn't one of them.

Meanwhile, the water alarm is going off at odd times and accompanied by the mandatory alarm company call to see if all is ok. After this happened at and after midnight, I called the service guy to check it out. When he arrived I had to let him know that he might meet up with a rabbit. He didn't even blink and politely thanked me.

A few minutes later he brought up a tangle of wires that my husband had already looked at and showed us the sliced up incisor marks all over the plastic coating of the wires.

First, how did this rabbit get into the room, it's concrete block underground and lived-in house with multiple doors otherwise? Second, what was he/she (please don't be a she) eating. From the brown little pellets we surmised the bunny was eating cardboard and drinking the small condensation from the equipment.

Eventually we spotted it again, hiding behind the storage boxes; a full-size cottontail rabbit looking surprisingly healthy.

I had family visiting from out of town, looking for stuff to do in this in-between season up here. What better activity than bunny-trapping?

After 3 tries with a humane trap baited with salad leftovers, I am happy to say the bunny was contained. It was astoundingly calm and still munching on lettuce as we relocated him to a nearby wood.

And that is the end of our bunny tale.