Mr. Rabbit
Yesterday after the gym, I was driving down the street to my driveway and spied a rabbit nibbling peacefully on some grass in my yard. I smiled and observed him for a bit. It has been awhile since I have seen one in the yard. Call me East Coast sentimental, but I believe every grassy yard should have a rabbit, a chipmunk or two, squirrels, the occasional skunk, and some robins and cardinals. It is just enough wildlife to remind you that you are not the only living thing out there!
While spying on Mr. Rabbit, I remembered back to my youth when I lived on Maple Street in Wenonah, NJ. I was about 7 years old. Dad came in the house and asked if we kids wanted to see something neat. So Mom, Adam, Sheryl, and I followed Dad out into the backyard. We wandered over to the side of the house by the tether ball pole. Below that by the fence, we had a large forsythia bush.
Dad told put his fingers up to his lips and shushed us quiet. Slowly he bent down and parted some lower leaves and branches and pointed to a small hollow at the base of the bush. There was a litter of 5 baby rabbits hiding in a nest lined with rabbit fur and green grass. They had hair and were about 4 inches long. Dad pointed out the small one, the runt of the litter. He was about an inch shorter than the rest.
Dad said to us in a low quiet tone, “Now don’t touch them, or the mother won’t come back. We can’t disturb them or she won’t come back and raise them. OK?”
We nodded eagerly and quietly watched the little bunnies sleeping in the nest. We followed Dad’s advice and didn’t visit the nest again. Playing tether ball was also put on hold. About six weeks later, the bunnies were spied leaving one by one. A couple remained and we had more rabbits throughout the years, possibly relatives of that original litter which Dad showed us.
My rabbit continued to contently munch away on some grass, not a care in the world. He’s an Eastern Cottontail, maybe 4-5 pounds, with a beautiful brown coat. Hope he sticks around for a bit.
While spying on Mr. Rabbit, I remembered back to my youth when I lived on Maple Street in Wenonah, NJ. I was about 7 years old. Dad came in the house and asked if we kids wanted to see something neat. So Mom, Adam, Sheryl, and I followed Dad out into the backyard. We wandered over to the side of the house by the tether ball pole. Below that by the fence, we had a large forsythia bush.
Dad told put his fingers up to his lips and shushed us quiet. Slowly he bent down and parted some lower leaves and branches and pointed to a small hollow at the base of the bush. There was a litter of 5 baby rabbits hiding in a nest lined with rabbit fur and green grass. They had hair and were about 4 inches long. Dad pointed out the small one, the runt of the litter. He was about an inch shorter than the rest.
Dad said to us in a low quiet tone, “Now don’t touch them, or the mother won’t come back. We can’t disturb them or she won’t come back and raise them. OK?”
We nodded eagerly and quietly watched the little bunnies sleeping in the nest. We followed Dad’s advice and didn’t visit the nest again. Playing tether ball was also put on hold. About six weeks later, the bunnies were spied leaving one by one. A couple remained and we had more rabbits throughout the years, possibly relatives of that original litter which Dad showed us.
My rabbit continued to contently munch away on some grass, not a care in the world. He’s an Eastern Cottontail, maybe 4-5 pounds, with a beautiful brown coat. Hope he sticks around for a bit.
We had a litter of bunnies in our potato patch. I found out when I accidently shoveled up the burrow so my little girls could get the potatoes and bunnies started hopping around all over us. It was very exciting. We rebuild the burrow and put on gloves to replace the bunnies after we caught them. Mama came in the night and took all but our runt. We took that little one to the local wild animal rescue.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great story Lorrie, thanks for sharing, :),
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