I came across her on a chilly early morning while walking down a quiet trail. Curled up tightly in the frost-dusted grass, she resembled a tiny, newborn puppy—pink, hairless, and barely stirring.
She was so delicate that it was hard to tell whether she was breathing at all. Instinctively, I wrapped her in my scarf and hurried home, placing her in a shoebox under a warm lamp before taking her straight to the nearest wildlife rescue center.
The staff gathered around, puzzled, trying to figure out what species she might be. After consulting with specialists, they uncovered something unexpected: she wasn’t a puppy but a newborn domestic rabbit only a few days old.
With no rabbit nests, pet owners, or breeders known in the area, no one could explain how such a vulnerable baby ended up on her own.
The mystery deepened when a couple reached out to the center, saying their golden retriever had picked up something tiny that morning and tried to bring it to them.
They had assumed it was an old toy and hadn’t realized he had discovered the same little animal I later found.
In a way, two acts of kindness—one from a dog, one from a stranger—had given this baby rabbit a chance she otherwise never would have had.
The center named her Willow, and from the moment she arrived, she needed constant, intensive care. Staff fed her special formula, monitored her temperature, and kept her in an incubator to mimic the warmth of her missing mother.
