Orphaned hare 'like a small kangaroo in the house'

Clover was released into the wild at the end of June but keeps coming back

An orphaned hare keeps returning to visit the family who hand-reared her, weeks after being released.

Natasha Terry said they found the animal in their Lincolnshire garden and cared for her for eight weeks before releasing her in June.

The hare, who they named Clover, regularly visits and has been known to venture back into the house, Mrs Terry said.

She added it was a bit like having "a small kangaroo living in the house".

'Went upstairs'

Mrs Terry said Clover knew her way around the family home.

"She came through the back door into the house, which we were surprised about, and she went upstairs and looked into the mirror on our wardrobe - it was like she'd turned up to check how much she'd grown," she said.

Mrs Terry's husband, Mark, found the leveret while cutting grass and concluded it had been orphaned after finding a dead hare the day before.

"We brought her in and tried a couple of rescues, but it was right at the beginning of lockdown so no-one could travel to us.

"We couldn't travel to them, and there was nowhere local that would be able to take her," he said.

So the family decided to rear the hare themselves.

Clover was reared on powdered rabbit milk before progressing on to grass and hay

"It's a bit like what I can imagine having a small kangaroo living in the house would be like, when she got bigger," Mrs Terry said; adding that the couple's children all helped to look after Clover until she was big enough to be released.

"She hopped off and we thought we might see her once or twice but to our surprise she comes back on a daily basis pretty much to come and say hi," she said.