As wildfires raged throughout Southern California last week, one particular feel-good video went viral: it shows an unidentified man pulling over on the side of the highway to rescue a small, frightened bunny.
Who even was this intrepid rabbit rescuer? On Friday, we thought we were one step closer to knowing the truth when a man named Oscar Gonzalez told NBC Los Angeles it was him. In an interview, he called himself an animal lover and said he actually rescued multiple rabbits that day.
But over the weekend, another man came forward to say that he was in fact the real rescuer. Twenty-one-year-old Caleb Waldman told HuffPost that he was driving when he saw a rabbit in “significant distress.” He says he ran out of his car to try to save it, but it started to run back to the fire. At this point, Waldman says he told her, “‘No, baby bunny, I’m here. I’m going to take care of you.’”
Conejo Valley Veterinary Hospital, where Waldman initially brought the rabbit, confirmed his identity as well. (As for the bunny, she’s a female cottontail rabbit and currently recovering at the California Wildlife Center.)
As HuffPost points out, this doesn’t necessarily mean that Gonzalez is lying about rescuing a bunch of bunnies — he’s just not the man featured in the viral video.
If only rabbits could talk.