30 July 2004

Easter in July

Were I one who had mastered the art of including digital photos in this blog, you'd be looking at a rabbit that I saw in my backyard yesterday.  It was the size of Manitoba.  I thought it was a donkey when I first saw it.

I read something not long ago that 2003 was the Year of the Rabbit in the Chinese calendar.  I think they were off by a year.  Rabbits are everywhere this summer.  My mother plants a large amount of flowers and plants in her yard every year, and this is the only time I can recall seeing so much of her work devoured.  There is a chain link fence that separates the back yard from the parking spots by the garage here, and Mom planted some multi-stemmed flowers along it.  Today, it looks like she planted chopsticks for there is nothing left of those plants except the stems.

I discovered that we had a rabbit's nest (or is it den? lair? boudoir?) in the front yard early in June and carefully avoided it when cutting the lawn for the rest of it's time.  The baby rabbits (rabbitlings?  I kind of like that) are long gone now, though I'm sure that they have been helping themselves to the greenery we have provided them.

The "donkey rabbit" that I saw yesterday truly amazed me.  It didn't hop, it waddled.  I watched it wander over towards the garage where there are large hostas planted in front and saw as it casually reached over and ripped a whole stalk out with its mouth and inhaled it.  The thing was gone in two seconds.

I don't mind the rabbits, really.  When I was a kid they were a rare sight.  This year it is rare not to see one every time I am outside.

But if they ever decide to organize, we're all in big trouble. 

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You made me think of a cheesy sci-fi movie I saw years ago, about mutant or irradiated rabbits that grew to enormous size.  I'm seeing a lot of rabbits this year too, and even more proof with all the chewed up plants in my yard.