We have a nest of baby rabbits in our backyard. This is a new development, and not a happy one given that our dog, Coco, LOVES her yard, especially in summer, when she spends much of the day lying in sunny corners, basking in the warmth. The arrival of these vulnerable new neighbors has put a bit of a crimp in her/our style.
Once we realized we had a rabbits nest in our yard a couple days ago, we read up online about what to do if you also have a dog. The advice generally seems to agree that you should put something like a laundry basket with plenty of air holes on top of the nest during the day. We have this crate that we’ve overturned and weighted down with a large stone from our garden.
(Aside: Stones are very, VERY heavy for their overall size, way heavier than a similar sized block of concrete. I tried a concrete paver and then tried a rock. No contest. Stone must be a far denser material.)
Then we surrounded the overturned crate with a garden fence for added deterrence. Apparently mom rabbits always stay away from their nest during daytime hours, hiding nearby in a garden, etc., to keep an eye on things, and then they return to their babies at night. We’ve been putting up the crate and fence in the mornings and then putting them away again in the early evening, when the only remaining time for Coco to be in the yard is right before bed, and then she’s only out there on a brief visit to do her business and can easily be supervised. Apparently the babies should leave the nest in about three weeks—although then what? I shudder to think about a family of tiny rabbits wandering around our yard all hours of the day. Hopefully by the time they leave their nest, they’ll be big enough and smart enough to run fast for the fences.
However, that’s a problem for the future. First thing to know for today’s post: Coco’s daily naps hug the edges of our yard and tend to follow the sun. So the driveway and the wall of the garage, along the back fence, next to the garden in the side yard, and finally near the gate that leads to the front yard. She always sticks to that perimeter and, I guarantee you, has NEVER ONCE lain between the silver maple and the stone retaining wall below our back porch.
Check out her two new fave spots as of this morning. Like, what? She’s just trying to find a relaxing place to chill. So innocent 😂
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Katherine Wikoff 
She knows something’s up!
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She does indeed!😂
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Aww! She’s supervising 😉 Much the same way our Jack Russell would supervise a nest of baby rabbits…I love him dearly but have no illusions, ha ha!
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Ha ha, indeed! I love that: she’s supervising! That’s exactly what she looks like, and if we were living in a Disney movie, she’d be the surrogate mom out there protecting the bunnies during the day before turning the job over to the bunny mom at night. Here in the real world, though, it’s going to be a long three weeks. And even then, once the three weeks are up, I suppose we may end up finding little bunny corpses in our yard anyway despite all our efforts. Our dogs are sweethearts, but in the end they are also dogs!
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Wow, you, too, huh? BentleyMom (and Bentley!) discovered the same situation in their backyard. Unfortunately, Bentley made the discovery first, so there was a death in the family. I’ll forward your post to BentleyMom so she can read about your adventure!
About heavy rock, yeah, there are stories about folks who went to the gravel yard to buy a few buckets of gravel for their yard and were amazed to discover those few buckets of little rocks were heavy enough to burst their tires driving home. Better to have that delivered by a heavy-duty truck!
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In some ways it’s too bad Coco didn’t make the discovery first in our yard, too. In the end we might have wound up in the same place, except without the burdensome three weeks of dealing with the protective apparatus and extra canine supervision.
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Also, that’s really interesting about the rocks and tires. I would not have thought of that, but now that I read what you said, I do remember years ago buying a rather innocuous looking tube of sand at the hardware store. It weighed 50 pounds! I could barely load it into my car. Hmmm. Maybe next winter I should buy two of those tubes and put them in the back of my vehicle for a little extra weight and traction in the snow? Plus the sand could come in handy if I’m in a situation where I’m stuck in the snow with my wheels spinning.
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Indeed, yes. I’ve known people who kept two or three bags of sand in their trunk in the winter. Only works if you have rear-wheel drive, of course, but it’s a good trick if you do. As you say, the weight helps and that sand can come in handy.
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