You gotta love emails like these floating around the IntarWebs. Words and Images sent in by Monica H., from an email forwarded to her:
“These little bunnies, about 6 days old, were attacked by a dog and orphaned. Two out of the litter of five did not survive, and these three were not doing very well.”
“Noah is a non-releasable, one-legged homing pigeon/rock dove that is in the rehab center. Noah kept going over to the bunny cage and looking in—even sleeping in front of the door to the cage.”
”Then suddenly, there were only two bunnies in the cage. To everyone’s surprise there was the tiny bunny under Noah’s wing sound asleep! That little bunny rabbit had crawled through the cage, preferring a featherbed!”
“Now, they are all together and the bunnies are doing GREAT. When the bunnies scoot underneath Noah’s feathers, he carefully extends his wings out to surround them and then they snuggle. When one of them moves and they start sticking out here and there, he gently pushes them back under him with his beak! It is a beautiful and amazing thing to see.”
Pretty snorgleriffic, Monica H.
{ 160 comments }
so sweet I think I need to brush my teef now – such mothering by the pidge!
Aaw, this makes me all weepy
oh, that is too adorable… makes me feel sad for some reason. T__T
Guardian Angel. Da baby bunnies has one.
OMG. MY HEART. JUST. BURST!!!
Too perfect. Thank you.
wow!
This is why I believe animals have souls
So sweet.
This is awesome.
So sweet
I love the snorgling and the tucking in.
And what a beautiful dove! Hilarious that his name is Noah. Can the bunnies be named Shem, Ham and Japheth please??
is there a chance to watch a video of it? *__*
It never ceases to amaze me (but it’s not really so surprising, is it?) how much better parents animals are to babies than we as humans tend to be. And this little bird isn’t even their real mama (eh, daddy?). What a nurturing, sweet-natured little guy. I love Noah!
sooo brilliant I love it
Way to go Noah!
So do I Kelsey!
When animals give affection, they do give it, while us humans could fake it.
They felt somehow that they needed each other.
Serena-niiiiiiiiiiice.
Kelsey- so, your bebehleh- a doe or a buck? Best wishes to you both, K.
I have thought about this quite a bit, and I believe that anything that can love has a soul.
Noah is an angle. How sweet!
I’m all awash with AHN right now. *sigh*
Darn! I seem to have somethings in my eye. *sniffle*
Aaaaaaw, that made my sunday. What is it that makes interspecies adopting so anerable?
Oh my, this makes my heart ache!
That birds got a heart of a cowboy!
This is why I love animals more than people.
Are you sure Noah isn’t really Nora?
Noah wins the name award for the week.
Today on CO (Compassion Overload): One-legged pidgie Noah hatches a brilliant plan to take three orphans under his wing. The bunnies hop to it.
I agree with some of the other comments. There is no way a bird is hard-wired to automatically take care of baby bunnies; that’s a deliberate response to the needs of others, which requires some form of real compassion, however primitive it may be.
OH my GOODNESS THAT IS TOTALLY GLORIOUS!!!!! If only humans were like that……
Sweet story, sweet comments.
when i first read this i misread ‘unreleasable’ as ‘unreasonable’, so at the end i was thinking, what’s so unreasonable about that? one creature that has experienced compassion is passing that compassion on to others.
be it learned or instinctive, our planet is in desperate need of more compassion.
What a caring bird! Oh, and check out the 3rd pic: I spot a teeny tiny bun-tail.
This one brought tears to my old eyes.
Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. Melts into puddle,
That’s awesome. Where are my tissues!
*sniffle* Wonderful!
No, no, *this* is the one that has killed me! It take interspecies adoption to a whole new level — bridging the mammal-bird gap! How utterly and completely sweet and amazing!
Absolutely adorable!
Update on Noah and Bunnies with Photo!
See! the urge to kiss and snuggle baby bun buns is a universal!
This reminds me of that mama hen with the baby puppy under her wing.
<333333333333
“When one of them moves and they start sticking out here and there, he gently pushes them back under him with his beak!”
Hey there, Mister and Missy! Where do you think you’re going?
soo cute i just he doesnt expect them to fly!
Awwwww! to the nth power, people! This is *so* sweet!
What they said. This is just wonderful.
“He cuddles with all the babies as they snuggle under his warm feathers…and he “coos” as if singing them to sleep with a lullaby.”
G’AWWWWWWWWW
Kam Choi Yiu – Now, it may have been a simple typo, and goodness knows I have made more than enough of them over the years, but juuuuuuust in case you are new to speaking English- an ‘angle’ is a mathematical/geometric term describing the junction of two rays and ‘angel’ is the divine and kindly spirit. No offense intended, I just wanted to help. Best wishes, your fellow Peep, Katrina
Oh, dooooo go to the follow-up everyone! I bet it is so nice and fluffy and warm under there!
Aaaaw, so sweet, I nearly started crying
ok — out to all the Librariologists who answered some other posts here recently —
I noticed, in Paula H’s thoughtful followup post (#39) above …the Center involved in the rescues…
plans to release A BOOK on these guyzzz!!! Prepare the budgets — corporate & personal — to BUY, BUY, BUY!!!
Signed, Fuzzie-Wuzzie
Too sweet! I love it!!!
Noah is beautiful. Snorgling aside, I think he realized this was his new forever home and he wanted a job…now his is helping other babies rehab as well. Everybody needs to feel useful!
This is just what I needed. Rescued baby bunnehs and adopted dad, Noah! SO SWEET
Get well, bunnies!
Holy interspecies snorgling, Batman! It simply does not get any better than this.
And I still can see blue velvet through my tears….
AWW
Noah is a feathered guardian angel 
Peace. . . hope for the future. . . the Holy Spirit. . .
I REALLY needed this today. Thanks, Meg. Thanks, folks who are caring for these animals. Thanks, Noah and bunnies. Thanks, Creator of All Things.
Aww, too sweet! I love interspecies snorgling!
sometimes it really does take a village…
we should be paying more attention to what is all around us.
As a Pastafarian, I take offense to the usage of the word “God” in the post, and demand that you replace it with “Flying Spaghetti Monster.” Because we all know only his noodly goodness could have created the internet.
(Woohoo! My first nuff! *squee!*)
Sarcasm aside, this is one of the cutest stories I’ve ever read.
Pigeon daddy “coos” lullabies to his bebehs!
Wow, that is just beyond amazing. What a great lil birdy Noah is!
Do pigeons share the responsibility of sitting on a nest? Just strange that a male would do that.
Def adorable though. Go birdy go!
I adore this post. And I love the fact that the little bunny bravely ventured out of the cage to snuggle with Noah, and that Noah welcomed him with open wings. Feathered or furry, Love is Love, and all critters need nurturing. Thanks so much for posting this very moving and simply lovely story. It is so heartwarming.
Oh such a good story. It made me a little teary-eyed with happy tears for those baby buns.
I believe in God/dess. I don’t attend church, mosque, temple or hold esbats. I hold every religion that believes in the goodness of mankind and promotes peace and love in the highest regard.
I think Noah is the very emblem of love and promise that the human race is not slated for doom and destruction. If a small bird can take care of another species, despite their disparaging differences, why can’t we do the same for each other? Some may argue, well he’s just a bird, he’s just following his natural instincts to nuture and take care of something. If it’s his innate nature to care and nuture another, no matter what kind of animal it is, then for pity’s sake, why aren’t we?
I’m normally not a CO weeper, but this story made me tear up. Go, Noah!
Guys, we found a baby bunny in our backyard. It’s bigger and older than the one in this post, but its eyes were open the whole time and it didn’t look like it was breathing. D: IDK what we should do, just leave it alone?
[Yep, just leave it alone, pretty much every time. - Ed.]
To Quincy:
Awhile back, I saw a docu. about St. Wonder & the album Songs/ Key of Life….he & one of his musicians had a running joke about being Pastafarian…..izzat where you got your reference, or izzit a coink-idink????
More proof that baby bunnies are irresistible, even to one-legged sweet, snuggly pigeond/doves.
Dawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.
I remember a story a while ago about another pigeon, at a wildlife sanctuary, who took care of an orphaned monkey. The poor little munk was lonely and sad and not thriving, but when the pigeon started giving him snugs and hanging out with him he perked right up and grew healthy. It is very, very touching to see an animal – especially one that, like a pigeon, you KNOW doesn’t have much goin’ on upstairs – behave so kindly and altruistically to another. They must just have an instinct to be NICE.
But come on, dudes, there are plenty of people with an equal capacity for kindness. Think of all the good parents you know, especially if you know any who took care of someone else’s kid when they were in a bad situation. Sure we do some horrible things, but then, so do some animals. Look up Passion the chimpanzee at Gombe. Let’s try to take a balanced view and not just assume that all animals are nice and all people are bad.
People could learn alot from the animal world. Kindness and love. I hope the baby buns make it with the help of Noah (get that a male pigeon). I love animals and I adore this website, gives me my awww for the day.
OMG too beautiful!! My heart has melted…..
This makes me feel so happy and SO GLAD to be a vegetarian because that means I never eat chicken or other birds like Noah…
I can haz surrogate mummy ???????? I love nature and inter species mothering, absoloutely magical and hear melting.
THIS is why I like animals so much.
Isn’t this missing a ResQte tag?
Now I understand why the Holy Spirit is depicted as a dove!
Noah doesn’t even look real – his feathers , they shine like rosy pearls, or spun sugar…
thats absolutely wonderful!
Bee-tee-dubs, Meg, Teho & NTMTOM–I heart the itty bitty smiley you’ve snuck in at the bottom of the pages.
this is so cute! i luv the third pic. wehn the bunny trying to escape and the pigeon is like ” ohh noo u dont! ur mine! mine i tell u mine!!” lol
VIDEO!!!!
are you kidding me.
This one almost made me cry….
the motherly instinct is so strong in animals….
I’ll never look at a pigeon on the street the same way!
What a sweet story. Love has no boundaries.
This is simply amazing. Animals can teach us so much.
@ Leslie
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Spaghetti_Monster
The religion of the intarwebs – and possibly the most all-encompassing and non-traditional of religions I’ve ever heard of.
Awww. another cross species love.
Never fails to melt hearts.
so cute yet so sad…
a caring dove
orphaned rabbits
feel the love
against all habits
A charming story.
Awwwwwwwwww my awwwwwwwwwwww for the day!!lol
Kelsey It never ceases to amaze me (but it’s not really so surprising, is it?) how much better parents animals are to babies than we as humans tend to be.
I’ve often thought the same thing: when an animal mama won’t nurse her babies and leaves them alone to cry for extended periods of time, we consider them abandoned and feel the need to rescue them. Humans, on the other hand, write “parenting” books recommending doing exactly that to “teach” the babies to be independent. Animals definitely have the right idea.
Have you seen this video from YouTube: Hippo saves Impala which goes to prove that animals have feelings, just like humans do (maybe even more so!).
If you are interested, please visit my photography blog at: Trigger Happy Photo Blog. I hope you like it.
so cuteeeeeeee
Aww.. they are so cute..
<
Sneeefs. Blows nose loudly and pretends to have ze hayfevers in case anyone thinks I am sentimental – moi?
@ Squirrel — Thanks!! Didn’ know !
Isn’t it amazing how animals do this sort of thing? Even if we don’t understand it, we should respect it.
Sniff, Sniff……God bless the animals!!!!
So much love I can’t stand it.
Katrina,
) He’s my little love buggy and he KNOWS it. I wish I knew how to add an avitar, (if that’s even an OPTION for us measley commentors) because Sir Spencer would totally be it.
My leetle boobulah is a buck!
And you would all fall to your knees and beg for mercy at the power of his cuteness. He’d give it, natch. That’s just the kind of guy he is.
Even God’s precious creatures act out His heart.
Psalms 91:4 He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.
Thanks much for the ’soft and gentle’ post. We need more of those.
*brings in 50 boxes of tissues* This is so sweet!
…
OMG, there is so much love in such tiny packages. Makes me all teary-eyed.
I am dying (and crying) from the cuteness. Literally! Halp! Thank you for posting the sweetest story I’ve heard in a long, long time!
This melted my heart. Please keep us updated on their growth!
this made all teary-happy
so adorbs. geez. funny how this male bird would take on these bunnies, yet some momma birds will eat their young if humans touch them.
Wow. This is amazing.
NO! Not the MAD smiley, the HEART smiley!!!!! Sheesh!
Sarah: I have to agree with you, overall. I do not understand why people feel that they can’t say one thing is good without putting down something else. Animals are better than humans? What about the humans who are providing shelter and care for Noah AND the bunnies, and countless more like them not currently featured on CO?
Why, when an animal abandons their baby, it’s just natural, but when humans are poor at parenting it’s an example of our inherent badness? Conversely, when an animal shows interspecies compassion — it’s wonderful, certainly, but why the need to disparage humans who at the same time? I just don’t get it. Surely we can take all compassion, by humans and animals both, for the goodness that it is, without this constant need for negativity.
Those bunnies! They’ll sleep with just about anybody!
LisaL: Please give the ‘male’ of the species, whatever species, a little more credit. I’m a single parent who happened to raise a beautiful 21 year old daughter from age eight months. And no, while I didn’t sit on a nest, I was quite capable of nurturing. One does hopefully, regardless of gender, what one needs to do. I’m hoping a man will surprise you someday.
Your pitcures and your story are really wonderful! Best compliments! Albix
Hooray for the Flying Spaghetti Monster! May His Noodly Appendages keep us all as happy as these little furry buns. What a sweet story!
Oh, and…
Rahmen….
that is AMAZING. God bless Noah.
I don’t understand the blanket condemnation of humans made by humans who, given the chance, would undoubtably adopt and care for the buns just as tenderly as the boid.
It’s like they’re saying “people suck…except me.”
Look how many people appreciate the compassion on display here. Do you really think they could appreciate it if they didn’t see it as a reflection of their own values?
Hey folks, here’s another nuturing creature, the photo has the headtilt just right…
http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/1132087.html
Rottweiler makes purrfect mother
Family dog nurses litter of abandoned kittens
By GLEN PARKER
Mon. Jul 13 – 4:46 AM
Someone could always lead us in the Agnostic’s Prayer.
Seriously, this is one to remember on Father’s Day. (I think this is a male dove going by the descriptions)
Well said, apotheosis and Von Zeppelin!
awesome
Re: the Rottie foster mom. “Am I cog or am I a dat?”
*asplode*
awwww so cute!
Sad start, but the pictures are very sweet.
Let’s keep thinking about compassion. And the symbolism of the dove. Gosh!
Oh, I got all teary-eyed! What a sweet little miracle that is, that interspecies snorgling. >head tilt<
For everyone saying ‘omg I wish HUMANS were like that’ and ‘omg this is why I love animals more/why can’t people be like this’…I’d like to remind you that:
-They’re at a human run shelter
-A human being saved those bunnies and brought them in.
-Human beings saved both the pigeon and those bunnies, else there would be no cuteness moment for you to ‘awwww’ over.
So, people DO do those things. And if it were up to the animals you seem to value more, well the dog would have finished off those adorable little bunnies. =\
Ding ding ding! What Marian said. Please cease generalizations until further notice. There will be no further notice.
I think everyone on this site has their period. Men included. We aren’t saying people suck, we are just commenting how we could take a page from the bird’s book. Meaning get along with each other, not that people are mean assholes who hurt animals. I never said animals are better than people or people are better than animals. I said it amazes me an animal with little sentience can foster a completely diffrent species and we can’t stop arguing long enough (like this) to see the significance.
It is so wild that a male animal would show such motherly insticts, especially for young ones that aren’t his own. Very lovely.
how darn adorable!
It’s going to be interesting when Noah tries to teach them how to fly. :p
Gorgeous.
Amazing !!
Just strange and this is sad in some ways.
this is just amazing.. made my day
This is just such a sweet story! What a great birdie!
Hey “sadimtouch,” I don’t know about anyone else but I was referring primarily to Kelsey and Indy1110’s comments. I didn’t even read yours.
Meh. I don’t see what the big deal is. I also like to sleep under a down blankie.
‘Course, my down blankie doesn’t reach out to embrace my toesies and tuck them back in when they slip out. Hmmm. Maybe it’s defective. Gotta see about getting a refund.
Buck Cronkite- Uhm, ok then. When did I ever say that ALL males, no matter what species can’t be nurturing?? You seemed to take offense when you really shouldn’t have at all.
When I said that it was strange that a male would do that, I meant birds, since this whole thing is talking about a pigeon afterall and I do ask if pigeons share the responsibilty of sitting on the nest.
Sheesh…. I guess next time I’ll have to spell out whatever I’m saying so someone won’t come along and get offended for no reason.
Hypersensitivity=the sucks.
Animals are smashing ! So cute !!
Beautifull day on Earth !!!
hi, I’m from Vietnam. Nice to visit your blog
Always great to see cross-species relationships. Can never get enough of these kinds of photos!
Cuuute! So touching and sweet!
hi
Sorry, this doesn’t make me sad or weepy. On the contrary, it makes me happy that Mother Nature is so wise and creates the weirdest associations from time to time, in this case to comfort the weak. Great snapshot!
@Katrina (48) — I think “angles” can also be a word for Germanic speaking people — the Decemberists have a song about it (“Of Angels and Angles”).
And I love the adoring look the bird gives the bunnies
I like beautiful blogs!
Kelsey- awwwwwwwwwww. Tell us when his antlers come in! (snerkity snerk) I have two boys, ages 17 and 20. They are little for such short time- get every hug and kiss you can! Best wishes to both of you, your friend in Peepdom, Katrina.
Hi honeyelize, welcome!
Wow, this shows hoe compassionate animals are.
That’s soooo lovely – thank you so much!
@ Kelsey (sp?)
There have been two generous posts from Meg et al with a heapin’ hunk o’ Avatars o’ Cuteness: the one I found was December 22, 2005 but they also did another selection posted sometime in the recent few months…If I were more Komputer Klever, I would attach a link …but ….ennyhow; I know that you can use the “Soich” Bar with the term “Avatars” to find at least the group from 12.22.2005. Hope that helps!!!
Peace & cuteness to all
woooooow wonderful thank you so much
“PURE LOVE”
Where are they now…how are the bunnies are they still with the bird???
DAWWWWWWWWW. And to think some people don’t like pigeons. May His Noodliness bless them all. RAmen.
This is Noah’s Mom. Thank you everyone for your wonderful words! Noah is truly an angel. Noah lives with my husband and I at our small ranch in Texas. He is heaven-sent. We had 19 baby bunnies this summer so Noah was as busy as a “one-legged pigeon up to his beak in babies!”. We are working on a website which will be called wildroserescueranch.com and will hopefully have it up and running within a few weeks. I will add a video of Noah and the bunnies when we get new babies in..and you will be able to hear him cooing with the wee ones. There will also be several pictures of Noah and the other babies. The book should be available by early fall. For those of you who think that pigeons/doves are not smart, read up on them when you can and you will be pleasantly surprised…just as I was…before Noah. God bless you all!
you know those aren’t bunnies but squirrels right?
reason 23,567 as to why I like animals better than I like people
I hope Noah is given ANYTHING HE COULD EVER WANT wow…. he’s a king in our eyes, noble and ever loving.
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