Had a total freak out last Saturday, thought everyone would enjoy the story.

Sparty and our kitty were out in their room playing (it’s a room we are working to remodel, just have not gotten there yet, but has a little furniture, it’s the perfect place for the animals to run and play).  I had the door to their room closed so they could play while I cleaned the house (they both like to help clean, which can make cleaning time twice as long).  The room is bunny-proofed… or so I thought.  I check on them about every 15 minutes or so anyway, because you just never know.  Well about 10 min after checking on them, I heard scratching at the door, I opened it up to see Sophie, our kitty there scratching, she NEVER scratches to get let out…. I immediately looked around and no bunny…..  Searched for 10 minutes and realized the only place he could be… In the air duct tunnels of the central air vent.  The vent cover had gotten knocked loose from the tube and was laying on the floor… no bunny in site, I knew he had ventured in there.  Now I had always thought that rabbits did not like drafts and cold air, until Sparty came along, he comes out into the living room and lays across the vents (our house stays around 72 all the time, I know he’s not hot he just enjoys the air).  Well apparently he enjoys it too much because he climbed right in.  Beginning to panic, I though maybe just maybe he had slipped by me into the living room while I was looking for him, so I began to search the rest of the house before freaking out.  But as soon as I started down the hallway my worst nightmare came true, I heard him scratching through the vent in the hallway!!  I woke my boyfriend up immediately and we were both in panic mode.  He had looked where he crawled in and was assured that there was no way for him to turn around in there and come back out (he’s a little fatty now).  We went under the crawl space of the house to see that every air duct tube, branched off in 4 directions so he could be anywhere by now, and I was not hearing him in the hallway anymore.  I was also in a panic because my first reaction was to turn the air off, but then I got to thinking that maybe he would suffocate… but the fan was still blowing so this seemed ok, except that I was not sure if he could make his way up to the air unit itself, and what if there were fans, etc….  After not hearing him in the hall and my boyfriend already cutting one tube under the house, I decided we had to call someone….  Do we call an exterminator (do they extract live animals or just dead ones?)  what about someone who does heating and air?  Maybe they could come out, find him, get him out and repair the damage….  It’s a saturday, how much will this cost?  Just as I was calling and lettting a number ring, I heard him in the hallway again, I ran down to yell at Nick, he had me knock on the wall near the vent, and after a bunch of yelling back and forth, getting tools, scissors and meeting eachother under the crawl space in the middle of the house, he was able to find him and pull him out.  Seeming very weak at first, but I think he was just scared, it was another chore to get him out from under there, since we were doing army crawls as it was and if he were to get loose under there that could be even worse, if that’s possible.  But finally we got him back in his cage.  We were covered in dirt and spider webs but he was clean as a whistle since he was in the air vent!  The kitty was very happy to know that he was ok, she obviously knew something was wrong, and was trying to let us know.  I am very sad this happened, and will pay more attention, you must check a room each time you let them out to make sure it is “bunnyproofed”, even if you checked it the day before and no one has been in there, you should still check it over.  This vent sticks out from underneath a small stairway landing, so is not visible unless you stick your head down there.  I am just thankful for the cat and for my boyfriend being home!! We still have 2 of the tubes below the crawl space to repair, luckily we can do it ourselves and the parts only cost around $30.  It could have cost $500 minimum had he decided to take a different path and hit a different tube and gotten farther into the house!

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