Monday, June 9, 2014

When it Rains it Floods

it is definitely a Monday at our house--what about yours?

Isaac woke up at 230, drank 4 oz, and went right back to sleep, me on the other hand tossed and turned, John was kind and let me sleep in the news reported light sprinkles--John though, being the loving husband he was, covered the chicks as their pen is usually the first to flood, so luckily that was 'covered' I finally pull my butt out of bed at 7;30-8 am, D and John have already left (today D goes to cub scout day camp, and boy was he excited) I hear some rolling thunder in the background so I take Tiger out to go potty, he wants to play, of course he wants to play.


It begins to sprinkle and I notice our incredibly pregnant momma rabbit is pulling fur so I go to see the nest she is making--where did all her hay go? oh crap she kicked it out, so with Tiger and Isaac in foot I run to the porch to go get her some more hay to go in her nest (cause she kicked it out of the pen entirely) and that is when it hits.

 photo WIN_20140609_090848.jpg This was the short distance we had to go, the entire area instantly started to fill up like a pond (most vanished before I could get the picture)
Some one in heaven must have turned on the high powered sprayer because it was hitting the ground so hard it was bouncing back up, I now understand why a flash flood was given the name flash. we are mid backyard when it hits, Tiger suddenly freaked out runs to go inside and runs smack dab into the new gate John installed at the top of the porch steps. Isaac is crying and running but misses the steps entirely and I have to chase him down.

 photo WIN_20140609_090826.jpg This was a steady stream of water (it has since calmed down)
Finally we all get inside, I call John to see if he can pull up the weather radar--how long is this going to last? about 20 minutes--but the babies could be born in that time.....so alas, I lock tiger up, leave Isaac roaming grab a hoodie and run outside to get hay from Cookies stash. I can not even begin to explain how hard the rain was coming down, but, I will say I am happy I ran out to grab hay from cookie, her shelter was flooding, the babies were huddled up in the driest corner they could find and cookie was standing over them.


Well, can't have them scared or getting too wet and cold, so I left to retrieve a crate we had to give them so they could cuddle up in a dry spot among hay--at this point I walking through streams as I try to get to the old goose pen to retrieve the huge dog crate, and guess what, it won't fit through the door I had planned to take it through, so I have to go back out, back through the gates, around the fences and in through another gate to go in through another door--finally get it, get hay, get the babies in it, run back to the rabbit in labor with hay for her and......


I find her huddled in the milk crate, still no babies, she is wet (need a new roof for her pen, it is on the list of things to do this Saturday--why couldn't the rain wait till Saturday? the fur she has pulled for the nest is wet, and falling through the cracks, and well--we can't have that. So I grab mom, throw some hay in her pen, throw some on top of the milk crate she is huddled up in and I drag them all in side (note, I have quite allergic to the hay so this wasn't a want to do thing, but she does need it for the nest), go back out for a plastic crate big enough to be her home for the delivery (because lets face it, unlike our other 2 rabbits, she isn't litter box trained).
 photo WIN_20140609_091053.jpg The tote and crate with hay set up I tried to offer the momma rabbit
Note, at this moment my pajama pants are so wet I can barely keep them up, I am in flip flops that have the wedges and the water is to my ankles and I am slipping and sliding all over the place, my hoodie hat has come off, the rain has soaked through the hoodie and my shirt, I am covered in wet sticky hay (remember I am allergic) and the rain was still coming down hard, my eyes were burning, and so I just tried to grab the biggest tote I could find--and guess what? The milk crate is too big, but as I run in with the tote my pj pants give up and fall off, soaking wet I say 'forget this' and I take her into the girls room and lay the tote on its side, the milk crate on its side, put hay in the tote, put hay in the crate and prayed at that point she wasn't so freaked out that she could actually deliver and not kill the babies

 photo WIN_20140609_090743.jpg These are the clothes I was wearing, just FYI, the pants when dry are a light blue with floral print.
I sat down at this computer at 820 am, I have spent the last 24 minutes typing this up--as much as I want to go in and video tape momma delivering her babies, I needed to give her space and so, I figured I would do so and calm down myself by typing out the last hour of events--yes, all that happened in less than 1 hour, and it is still raining with thunder and lighting (did I mention I did it all while there was thunder and lightening? Have I mentioned how much I hate thunder and lightening?) Tiger is peacefully chewing on his bone in his crate, Isaac who did manage to drink almost 6 oz of a bottle (when I sat down after all of it I also tried to let him finish up his bottle) is now curled up on the tile next to my feet, I definitely need to get into some dry clothes and go check on momma and ask ya'll, could you please pray for her and her unborn (well maybe they are now born) babies? They definitely need all the prayers they can get, specially since I just realized in my haste to get them into a dry space I sat them right next to an A/C vent...


SO I AM CURIOUS--how has your morning gone?

Edited to add, mom delivered numerous babies but all died but 3, and it would seem those 3 are probably going to die as well (suspecting there to be an issue with the litter, going to try and breed her to a different buck the next go around and see if it works out better)