After attending the second training session that Second Chance Wildlife Rehabilitation Center gave, I was told by several people that those bunnies needed to be let go. Any longer and they get more stressed out and could keel over from anything unexpectedly. They all were surprised that I had successfully gotten them through the last two weeks without any of them dying. That made me feel proud. Especially after considering that the Mighty Fluffy Huntress was drooling over them.

So I called Barbara, my local contact, and asked her about it. She said to go ahead, too. If they were eating greens well on their own then they could go. The youngest one who was from a different litter I was a little worried about releasing so soon. So Barbara said to keep one of the less skittish bunnies to stay with the youngest and let the others go. That's what I did. But I ended up releasing those two a couple of days later since the youngest was doing so well and looked to be wanting out of the pen. She/he would race around the edges of the pen. Maybe it disturbed her/he that four were gone.

All four of us trekked out to Richardson Forest Preserve out in the country off New London Road here in Hamilton to mark the occassion. The bunnies weren't so sure about leaving their safe haven in the carrier. After all, it was all they remembered. Then there were four of us standing around looking at them so that scared them, too. They were only used to being around me. I tilted the carrier and that scooted them to forefront where they stood cautiously and peered out. I reached in and put one out. Instantly, he/she froze. I stepped closer to him/her (I keep using this reference because it is so danged hard to tell their sex) and he/she hopped into the underbrush. I titled the carrier again and plopped all three of them out instead of chasing them around the cage with my hand. Either way was traumatizing so I took the easier route for me. They all sat there for a moment like the first one and then after stepping closer to them they shot away into the woods whereupon we quickly lost sight of them. They blend in so well with that brown coloring. Nature's purpose at its best. Same thing happened a couple of days later with the last two.

Can you spot the bunny in the grass? I wonder about them and hope that I didn't put that youngest one out too soon. But they should be in bunny heaven, as Amy called it. There was a huge field full of tall grass beside the woods and right on the edge of the trees were the hugest clumps of large-leaved clover I have ever seen plus dandelions galore.

Bye, bye, bunnies. I'll never know for sure if the six of them survived but I will always imagine that they're having the time of their lives in all that clover and freedom.