Down the Rabbit Hole

Jeffrey's stray cat is getting at the baby bunnies and I don't like it one bit. This is the time of year when Duncan sits in the windows and on the patio staring down at the grass below us so he can keep his eye on the bunnies which emerge from their nests and roll across the yard like small brown balls, their ears tucked down low against their backs, their hops sudden and full of exuberance but lacking in grace and style. They are awkward, fumbling things which haven't quite figured out who is friend and who is foe. And sadly, because of it, this year there are fewer of them dotting the lawns like misplaced stones than I have ever seen before. And the cat, beautiful and tenacious and deserving of my respect after surviving the bitterly cold winter, has been spotted lurking around their shrubs. Duncan whines and barks when he spots her down there and on occasion has startled her away from her prey, but even Dunc can't keep her at bay all the time.

Thankfully there are bunnies to play with near the grounds-crew office at the park. Yesterday one little bunny––a short fat one with a dark brown smudge on his chin and a white belly––mistook Roo for one of his playmates, albeit a larger and more drooly one. He squatted in the grass not far from the new lamp posts which have been left on the grass and are waiting for someone to install them. He let us approach and when Dunc was only a few feet away and leaning toward him, his big tongue lolling out of his mouth, the bunny gave a quick jump and lunged at Dunc, who startled and took a few cautious steps back. The bunny hopped at us but stopped once his mother appeared from her vantage under the shed. He seemed to understand exactly what she wanted to tell him ("That's a dog, you idiot!"), spun in a frantic circle then scrambled down the long narrow pipe of the nearest lamp post where he crouched, a dark shadow against the light coming through the far end.

Duncan darted after him, stuck his nose in the tube and huffed and snorted like a fat pig, hoping to lure the thing back out, alternating between one end of the pipe and the other.

Needless to say, the bunny did not reemerge and it was twenty minutes before I could talk Roo into forsaking his efforts and continuing our walk through the blessedly deserted park.