Hans Griesinger, 6, of Maple Park, keeps a baby rabbit warm after rescuing it. Courtesy photo Fox Valley Wildlife Center 45W061 Rt. 38, Elburn (630) 365-3800 P.O. Box 385, Elburn, IL 60119        The Fox Valley Wildlife Center is a private, nonprofit organization that cares for orphaned and injured wildlife. A state and federally licensed wildlife rehabilitator, it provides hospital care for wild animals who need help. The center's goal is to release these animals back into the wild.             Fox Valley Wildlife Center welcomes financial contributions and donations of animal food and other supplies listed on its website: www.foxvalleywildlife.org

6-year-old saves baby rabbits from storm

 Elburn facility's help brings bunnies back to the wild

 by Martha Quetsch

            Local residents were not the only creatures battling floods during the weekend deluge that hit in mid-September. They included two baby rabbits that were saved from being victims of the rainstorm by the Maple Park child who found them, and the Fox Valley Wildlife Center in Elburn.

            During the height of the storm, Hans Griesinger, 6, spied three baby bunnies outside his family's house on Meredith Road, struggling to stay afloat.

            “They were about the size of my hand,” Hans said.

            After making his discovery, he ran to his mother, Donna Riggs, to report what he had seen. Hans wanted to bring the animals into the house, but she said it would be better to allow them to wait for their mother to return.

            “I thought if we touched them and left a human scent, the mother rabbit would not come back,” Riggs said.

            The next morning, a Sunday, Hans looked outside where the baby rabbits had been, and saw that they were still there; however, one of them had drowned in a flooded area of the property.

            So, Riggs allowed her son to save the other two bunnies. Hans used a cloth to pick up each one, placing them in separate plastic kitchen containers and covering them with the cloths to keep them warm.

            He and his mom used an eye dropper to feed the baby rabbits a little milk, because they were not sure what to give them.

            Riggs, who does not have Internet access, called her mother to ask her to search online for how to care for a wild baby rabbit. Her mother told Riggs that she should not be giving the bunnies milk, but puppy formula. So Riggs, Hans, and his sister Dietre, 3, went to a pet store and bought several cans of the food.

            After they returned home, Riggs began calling licensed wildlife rehabilitation organizations that her mother had identified. To her surprise, one of them was nearby in Elburn.

            They got back into the car with the rabbits and brought them to the Fox Valley Wildlife Center, 45W061 Rt. 38. Elburn.

            The center's staff members whisked the baby bunnies off to an incubator and nurtured them until they were ready to be released back into the wild, which is the organization's goal for all the animals it aids.

            Back at home, Hans and his father, Peter Griesinger, buried the bunny who had drowned the yard.

            “We put dirt over him and a rock,” Hans said. “Now two of them are in the wild, and the other one is in Heaven.”

11/21/2008