When I came to work Friday, it was to a pleasant surprise. Near the garage entrance at work, we have a plastic bin full of wood chips from the landfill, which we used in a video last year. Our videographer and I happened to glance inside, and there we found…four baby bunnies!

These little guys couldn’t have been very old, perhaps even a day or two. Apparently one of the bunnies we see hopping around our building must have jumped into the bucket of wood chips to have her babies. She was nowhere to be found, although I’m sure she was nearby.

This was a pretty odd location for them, but the consensus at the office was that we shouldn’t move them or otherwise interfere with them. We put out a company-wide email to make sure that nobody disturbed the babies, then left them alone once everybody had gone out to take a sneak peek at them. They were climbing around a little bit within the little burrow, but their eyes weren’t open and they didn’t do much besides snuggle.

The parking lot this is in faces south, and that brick wall next to the bin acts as a giant reflector. Sadly to say, when I checked on them in the afternoon, they’d burrowed deeper in the chips but couldn’t survive the scorching heat. While it’s unlikely they would have survived any tampering on our part, by leaving them in place we were unable to give them shelter from the sun’s heat. All four were casualties yesterday afternoon.

As my boss and I disposed of the poor little guys (I work for a compassionate guy, I’m proud to say) we did see the mother hopping around the edge of the parking lot. It’s too bad she didn’t stay with them to care for them throughout the day; I’m not sure if she could have helped keep them cool, but at least she could have provided them some shade. In any case, I’m hoping she picks a different location to have her babies next time around. We’ll have to move or dispose of the bin of wood chips so it doesn’t encourage the same mistake.