Magical Mischief makes her way into lots of my art!

Wildlife inspirations! Art and nature inspire all of my art, and little Mischief and her brother Hidey are no exception! While walking my dog Cobey in April 2015, we heard the sound of a little bunny crying and looked over to see a pair of blue jays attacking and destroying a bunny nest. We had never seen this before – but have learned that blue jays here in the Southwest are fierce!  When given the opportunity, they will quickly kill baby bunnies – apparently for sport as they do not eat them. We quickly rescued the little brother and sister. With the rains last year, there were many cottontail babies and the local rabbit rehabilitator was unable to take these two as she was already overwhelmed.  So it was up to us. The critical factor for successfully raising tiny wild baby bunnies is that they have received the necessary “cecotrophes” (a special poop from the Mom that contains the necessary bacteria for their gut to develop properly to digest food).  Thankfully, these two had and we were able to successfully bottle feed them and give them carrots, pellets, apples and hay.  So, welcome Mischief and Hidey to the family!

It was absolutely wonderful to watch them grow and to really learn about wild bunny behavior! Mischief was always the “bold” one and her brother Hidey (aka Hide ‘En Out) was much more timid. But, Hidey suffered the most from the blue jay attack before we were able to rescue them.  He had a bad injury to his cheek that got infected. We had to have the vet come out and she lanced the infection. After several weeks Hidey had almost completely healed – but he always stayed just outside of our reach after that!

After the bunnies were three months old, as hard as it was, they were restless and we knew it was time to give them their freedom and hope for their survival. We put the habitat on the ground, opened the doors and they were once again free to explore and live their lives in the wild world! In the beginning, they were were such a joy to watch as they explored and tested out their jumping and running skills!

Mischief still visits us almost every day and her brother a few times a week. They are a great joy to watch and I just love them! Live long and prosper Magical Mischief and Hidey!