A US Marine doctor who had previously served in Afghanistan was able to put his field talents to good use when he rescued four orphaned bunnies at home.
While raking the volleyball court at Camp Pendleton in San Diego, California, where he was stationed with a Marine Corps battalion, Joshua Bisnar, a Naval Hospital Corpsman, discovered the defenseless rabbits with their dead mother. He gently gathered the animals and placed them in a makeshift shelter made of a box and a few old clothes to make it more comfortable.
To feed them, he researched a formula mixed with probiotics he found at Petco pet store and purchased four small droppers to administer the formula into the hungry mouths three times a day. And clearly a fan of guitar players, he named them James (after Jimi Hendrix), Steven, Raymond, and Vaughan (after Stevie Ray Vaughan).
‘I would feed them at 6 a.m. before work, 12 p.m. for lunch, and 6 p.m. for dinner,’ Bisnar added.
‘I was so afraid to leave them alone or go to work that I should have donated them to a wildlife refuge, but I was afraid the automobile journey would be too painful, but it was astonishing how quickly they grew up.’
‘After a week, they were no longer ugly newborns and began to resemble fluffy tiny bunnies.’
Mr Bisnar started with arugula (rocket salad) and gradually included some of the natural vegetables prevalent in southern California, such as dandelions and grass.
The military medic returned to his room one day to find one merely sitting in the corridor staring at him, and he realized it was time to let them go.
‘I’m from Newport Beach, California, so the next weekend I took them to a wildlife protection area off of PCH in Huntington Beach,’ Mr Bisnar added.
‘The lady who worked there was astounded to learn how a military member from Camp Pendleton successfully bred four rabbits with a 100% survival rate.’
0 Comments