Bunnies bunnies bunnies

Actually, there are 4 babies that were born in our yard at some point yesterday. Most of you know that there is a neighborhood bunny that seems to have a pact with Kodi. Kodi chases it a little, then lays down and watches it eat in our yard. Obviously, she found this to be an invitation to come have her bunnies in our yard.

Last night, Kodi was laying outside for a very long time just enjoying his yard.  Then around 9:30 he starts barking and barking and barking.  I yell at him, he stops, then starts up again.  I go outside and can tell he's scared of something in the yard (his eyesight isn't great at night and anything he sees scares him) because he keeps leaning towards it, barking, then jumping back.  I saw brown/gray-ness and assumed one of our doves was injured in the yard so I grab Kodi and drag him inside.  All the while I'm freaking out...because that's what I do with injured animals.  Luckily JM came home shortly after and I made him go check it out (poor guy had been working outside for about 9 hours and came home to a possible dead animal in the yard that he had to take care of RIGHT NOW).  He comes back in laughing saying, "well, it's not dead..."

Yep, 4 baby bunnies in a nest.  I have a feeling Kodi didn't even notice them till Momma came for the nightly feeding.  Or, she came to deliver them and it was her he was barking at.  Either way, when I got out there this morning I couldn't find any trace of them, just some dead grass.  So I stupidly let Kodi out and he sticks his big nose right into the dead grass which turned out to be a pretty decent hole...with bunnies in it.  I had to drag him back inside (keep in mind, while I do all this, I'm waddling) and then make JM go back out and fix the nest covering that Kodi messed up.  He checked and all 4 bunnies were alive and accounted for, but still new enough they don't have their eyes open.

Kodi has never been a dog to jump over or into anything.  When he was a puppy he used to get out of his gated area in my apartment by climbing the baby gate.  JM couldn't find any garden fencing last night when I sent him out at 11 pm (what a guy), but when I went to Menards today I lucked out that they had (albeit very tacky) garden fencing on clearance for $2.  I bought 2 rolls of it and this is what I "built". 

It's hard to see, but I have it open to our fence because I know Momma can get in and out through there (and the neighbor doesn't have a dog).  I also left it open to the tree because that's the tree Momma likes to hide in.  I took Kodi out and the fence is high enough to make it more of a hassle for him than he chooses to make, but it's wide enough that Momma can get between it or at least over it.  I know the babies are little enough to get out.  That big brown spot in the bottom left of the picture is the nest.

After setting up 40 feet of this fencing, I was soaked.  The heat index is currently 102 degrees and the sun is boiling. There was a little opening in the dead grass above the nest and I could see the babies squirming. So I put our lightweight tarp over it with the front and back open so that the breeze would still get through but block the sun. I'll take it down when the temperature goes down and before Momma comes back for feeding time. Let's hope it works!