Thursday, January 12, 2012

Silly Adult - Brains Are For Kids


 My Baby Bunnies
In the summer of 2008, my dog, Kommit, a darling mischievous Boxer, found a bunny nest in the middle of our backyard. I saw her sniffing and pawing at the ground and when I went to investigate her curiosity, I found three tiny bunnies nestled in a hole in the ground. The bunnies couldn’t have been but a few days old, because their eyes weren’t even open and they barely had any fur. Needless to say, every morning at potty-time, Kommit made a bee-line for that nest.

I placed a few of my son’s orange miniature football cones around the nest so I would know ahead of time when she got near it, and when she got even remotely close to the cones, I warned her with a “No” and she would meander to another part of the yard.

 After about a week of this, when my husband and I were on our patio chatting– not paying any attention to the dogs, although Hayley, our older Boxer never bothered with the nest, we heard a high pitched squeal and when we looked toward the sound, we saw that Kommit had pulled a baby bunny out of the nest! We ran to the bunny, now squirming on the ground—Kommit had taken off like a bat out of hell in the opposite direction–she knew she had done something wrong! I picked up the little bunny and to my untrained eyes, it appeared okay, so I gently placed it back in its nest with its siblings.

 When I inspected the nest the next morning, to my utter regret, I found a dead bunny. I felt so sad, but what could I do? My dog was a rabbit killer, but she wouldn’t understand. My husband took the little bunny corpse and buried it beneath a tree. Now we only had two baby bunnies, but boy were they getting cute. Their naked little bodies had grown some gray fur and their ears were so tiny! They were black and lay close to their little heads and they felt like velvet.

 Every morning I would check on my two little tenants. I pulled back the dried grass that their mother had covered them with the night before and when I touched them, they bounced! They were like little Mexican jumping beans. Not only did I touch them, but I picked them up, too. I just couldn’t help myself–they were just too precious not to hold and pet. (It’s a fallacy that the mother rabbit will abandon her babies if she smells humans on them, by the way.) I also watched for the mother rabbit. Every night after dusk, she would hop to the nest and sit on it to feed her babies. There’s something magical about watching nature in action.

 During Operation Baby Bunny, I saw my niece, Miranda, who was four years old, and told her about our little visitors. “Miranda, we have baby bunnies in our back yard!” I excitedly told her in my best Aunt Pammy voice. 

“You do?” she asked with wide curious brown eyes.

 “Yes! And guess what?” My attempt at dragging out suspense always works on four year olds. “They bounce when I touch them!”

 “Aunt Pammy,” she said as she rolled her awe-inspiring brown eyes, “they’re practicing hopping.” Her tone informed me that ALL adults should know something THAT elementary.

 

6 comments:

  1. Written on Thursday, January 12, 2012 11:01 AM

    First, GREAT post title, Pamela!

    So CLEVER!

    And what a sweet, sweet story! I happen to be a BIG bunny lover, so I really enjoyed this post! When I was kid, I got a bunny for Easter (who I named Sniffles). Unfortunately, one day our dog chased the rabbit around the yard for so long that the poor little bunny had a heart attack and died. OMG...I was so sad.

    "“Aunt Pammy,” she said as she rolled her awe-inspiring brown eyes, “they’re practicing hopping.”"

    Bwhahahahahahahhhahahaha! ADORABLE! Don't ya just love kids?

    Have a SUPER day, my friend!

    X

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    Replies
    1. Ron, I love bunnies too. And those two were just adorable! We had "bunny races" on our patio. I named one Hopper, and one Bouncer. But, alas, they aren't domestic animals, so I had to let them go. :-(

      Sorry about Sniffles. Our EB (short for Easter Bunny) had one too. The neighbor's dog got into our garage, and our rabbit cage, and gave her a heart attack too!

      Delete
  2. Written on Thursday, January 12, 2012 2:01 PM

    What a great story! And I agree with Ron, the title rocks! When we were still living on our farm we walked the dogs through the large front pasture every night. On one of our walks our Beagle Peaches discovered a baby bunny and before I knew it had it in her mouth. I told her to drop it and she did. Then I dragged her away by the collar while Hubs picked up the bunny and checked it out. It looked unharmed and he put it back down. I couldn't see what was happening because I was trying to keep Peaches away but he said after a few moments the bunny hopped off perfectly fine. Phew!

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    Replies
    1. Bubbe, wow! Dogs are quick, aren't they! Glad your Peaches isn't a "rabbit killer" like my Kommit! ;-)

      Delete
  3. Written on Thursday, January 12, 2012 9:26 PM

    A few months back I was on my way home around 9pm and it had been raining all day. The ditches were beginning to fill and, as I made my way down a winding back road, I almost wrecked my car because a family of rabbits burst out of the woods and onto the road...in front of me.

    4 to 5 bumps later I felt like a murderer the rest of the way home. I didn't have time to swerve and if I had I might have killed myself but needless to say it was sad. I'm from Texas and all but killing animals is just not something I enjoy doing!

    Your story made me think of that night and now I feel like I dragged this comment on too long :P enjoyed your story though!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Aw, Nate, I'm sorry my story brought up an unpleasant memory for you!

      I ran over a squirrel when I was only 19. I didn't mean to, it just ran out and under my tire. I looked in my rear-view mirror and saw it "flopping". I didn't want it to suffer, so I backed up and drove over it again! I was crying so hard, I could barely see the darn road! But I had to do it, I just can't bare to see a living creature suffer.

      And NO comment is too long! I SO enjoy them! Thanks for stopping by!

      Delete

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