Of Dogs and Bunnies

"That's all you can ever remember is them rabbits." (John Steinbeck)

The bunnies have returned with a vengeance. Jeffrey's feral cat, Mama Kitty, pretty much decimated them last year, along with most of the squirrels that Duncan chased down The Run. Summers past it seemed that whole herds of the things lurked in the grass like little fuzzy stones, their ears pressed flat against their backs, their brown noses twitching as we approached. But after Jeffrey rescued Mama Kitty from a particularly nasty winter, the bunnies all but vanished, leaving Roo confused as to why he had nothing to hunt on our numerous daily walks. Unfortunately for Mama Kitty, but not so for the bunnies, a coyote got her some time last fall and the grounds around our apartment complex are now teeming with long-ears once again.

This morning saw the return of the first of the kits, tiny little things with stubby ears and heads too big for their bodies. They were on high alert and darted into the hedges the moment Dunc caught sight of them, but that hasn't stopped him from looking for them every moment since. It's hard to say we walked much at all today because it seemed that Duncan had only one thing on his mind. It was all I could do to get him to take his head out of the shrubs and actually move his feet.

It's so good to have them back but it's going to be a long couple of weeks.