Itty Bitty Bunnies

   When I returned from Rochester two weeks ago, I did a leisurely walk through the back yard to survey what was still living or not after a hot, rainy week of neglect. Suprisingly, the strawberries were taking off on their own; so were several species of wild flowers and sparrows. Then I saw a funny, kicked up area of dirt that I certainly did not create myself. Wondering what was digging around, I toed the mound and suddenly opened up a hole - and saw eight or nine tiny wiggling gray rabbits with glittery black eyes and ears the size of my thumbnail. Hastily covering them, I looked around - we've had two full sized rabbits bouncing around for a while, one of whom's name is Juniper - he hangs out near the house - and another one who hangs out at the end of the yard. There they were - not far from the garden, of course. They seemed to be ignoring me... They always ignore me and pretend I can't see that they are RIGHT at the garden fence, eyeing my sprouts.

 However, these little guys were new! I watched for a week and saw no other activity. We let the yard grow into a meadow and waited, hoping they weren't abandoned due to my misadventurous discovery. I did check on them one more time. Still a little wiggling in there, but not so many as before. Frankly, I was a bit sad.

 And then, yesterday while coming back from watering the veggies, I found this guy. So small still, I nearly stepped on him.

Hey, you in the clover!

I can, in fact, see you.

  Looking around, I then saw The Itty Bitty Bunny Huddle.

The camouflage job is really good, guys.

   We may be about to argue about who will get to eat the garden, but these are cute as can be.

  After a few minutes, I came back to find Mother Rabbit had actually dropped by to see how the youngsters were fairing in the Big Meadow. They had quite a snack (a very lively event, as you can imagine), and then everyone took off in every direction. 

  Today, I have seen three or four of them venturing back into the yard (still uncut). Apparently the garden is fairly bunny proof.. for now! So I'll just enjoy these little guys.