October 5, 2024 — 09:11 local time

The rain had turned the pumpkin farm into a landscape of mud, standing water and rushing brown currents. An irrigation channel, swollen far beyond its banks, was tearing past the pumpkin rows when a rescuer’s chest-mounted bodycam recorded a small shape crouched on the muddy embankment: a white rabbit, soaked through, its fur stained with mud, pressed low to the ground with the floodwater surging just inches away.

The footage, timestamped 2024-10-05 09:11:26, opens on the rabbit sitting motionless among wet vines and scattered orange pumpkins, tall corn stalks bending in the wind behind it. Its long ears are upright, its pink nose twitching rapidly, its wide eyes fixed on the approaching rescuer. One slip off the crumbling embankment would have put the small animal directly into the fast-flowing channel.

Wearing a bright blue waterproof rescue jacket, thick black protective gloves and a safety harness with red straps and metal carabiners, the rescuer moves in slowly, extending both hands toward the rabbit without any sudden movement. The rabbit blinks nervously and adjusts its ears, but it does not bolt — a critical detail, rescuers say, because a panicked dash in any direction could have carried it into the current or deeper into the flooded field.

At the midpoint of the 15-second recording, the rescuer slides one hand beneath the rabbit’s chest and the other beneath its hindquarters, supporting its full weight in the way handling experts recommend for an animal with a delicate spine. The rabbit is lifted clear of the muddy embankment without struggling, its muddy paws dangling as the water rushes past below.

In the closing seconds, the rescuer draws the rabbit in securely against his chest and turns toward higher ground beside the pumpkin field, away from the channel. The rabbit remains calm in his grip, ears moving slowly, nose still twitching — wet, frightened, but safe.

Animal welfare workers note that small prey animals like rabbits are among the most vulnerable creatures in farm flooding: they chill quickly, their burrows fill with water, and flood currents that look shallow can sweep them away in seconds. They advise anyone who finds a stranded rabbit to keep movements slow, support the chest and hindquarters together when lifting, and move the animal to dry, sheltered ground as quickly and calmly as possible.

No music plays over the bodycam audio — only heavy rainfall, the roar of the irrigation channel, wind moving through the corn, squelching mud and the faint sound of the rabbit’s breathing. It is, in the end, a very small rescue on a very wet morning: two steady hands, one frightened white rabbit, and a short walk from the edge of the floodwater to safety.