Rabbits

Rabbits are back, if indeed they ever went away.

Now that I am no longer young or busy or distracted or full of beans I have time to consider the busy bee, the busy birds (like Mrs. Robin who this year successfully nested and raised four babies in my lilac bush) and other quiet interesting things. On my morning walks around the neighborhood I can go at my own pace, hum along to whatever cassette I have chosen and enjoy the trees and flowers and houses. I have passed dogs being taken on their morning rounds, cats sitting watchfully in windows or stalking morning prey and, lately, rabbits.

There is one brave soul at the corner of Jefferson Street and Ritchie Parkway who must come from the creek area to sample the flowers and grass. He will wait until I am almost next to him before showing tail and darting away. Blocks away there is a rabbit who hangs around Elwood Smith Park and who this morning ran from the park across the street and up Bette Frick’s yard. I don’t know where he was headed. Are rabbits too big for cats to tackle?

Last week as I passed Richard Montgomery High School going toward Mount Vernon Place I saw ahead of me what looked like a small squirrel or maybe a chipmunk getting ready to cross the road. As I got near I realized it was a baby rabbit – he couldn’t have been more than six or eight inches long – and he saw me coming. Quickly hopping over the sidewalk he only had time to reach the grass beyond where he scrunched down, big eyed, ears laid back and lay perfectly still like his mother had taught him. I pretended not to see him and went on by. Will he make it?

Recently I saw a silly horror movie called Night of the Lepus about giant rabbits, mutant of course, who were attacking people. No special effects, just blown up shots of regular rabbits with front teeth bared, plus taped rabbit noises. They were going after Grade B actors like Stuart Whitman and Rory Calhoun, who both looked a little long in the tooth and badly needed good haircuts. They seemed to take it all seriously but I didn’t believe it for a minute.