A few springs ago we discovered a rabbit's nest with four or five little rabbits in it in one of our raised garden beds that had been fallow for the winter. We left it alone, figuring that the little rabbits would be out of it before we really needed the bed for planting. The next weekend we checked on the nest to see how the little guys were doing, only to find that a large rat snake had found them too. We removed the snake and found only one of the little rabbits still alive. We thought it best to take him to the house and raise him in a cage since the snake might come back to the nest. So, we fed it with an eye dropper until we figured it was old enough to take care of itself. Then, we took it back up to the garden area and turned it loose.
We had made a conscientious effort to avoid having the little rabbit imprint on us so it would have a better chance of survival in the wild. We never petted it or talked to it. But, somehow, some imprinting did take place, and every time we would go up to work in the garden the rabbit would come nosing around. So, one day, unknown to us, one of our cats followed us up to the garden and when the rabbit came around to investigate.... Well, the chase lasted all of five seconds and the rabbit lost big time. We couldn't really get mad at the cat. After all, we praise him for catching mice and rats and it's stupid to expect a cat to know the difference between a rat and a rabbit. Now, however, we're sure to take any wild rescuees at least a mile from the house and deep into the woods before turning them loose.