MORE RABBIT

     I find that many posts I write do not end where I think they should end. In other words there's more to the story. Sometimes more happens and the story grows.

    That's what happened to the rabbit post of   Aug 17. I had portrayed the rabbit as sneaky and a nuisance.

    Well, some of these things may be true. 

    Later on you get some information that shows you are not quite right.

    A rabbit has been hanging around my yard. I also  see it in the morning. It seems to hide in the garden.

    Well yesterday I noticed that this rabbit has nipples. Yes, a row of nipples down her side. This indicates that she is nursing.

    When Jack rabbits have their babies, they hide them in different places  on the day they are born. The babies stay quiet all day. At night the mother comes to feed them several times. When the young are able to fend for themselves they leave the protection of the place that they were left by the mother. 

   So we get a very different idea of this particular jack rabbit when we learn some more. 

MR. McGREGOR

        I felt like Mr. McGregor  yesterday.

        Mr. McGregor was the gardener in the famous TALE OF PETER RABBIT written by Beatrix Potter. Peter Rabbit marauded Mr. McGregor's garden on a regular basis. Mr. McGregor couldn't catch Peter. My favorite part is when Peter hides in Mr. McGregor's watering can and Mr. McGregor doesn't see Peter and walks by. We all want Peter to get away. When Peter gets home his mother scolds him for going into Mr. McGregor's garden.

      So yesterday, what was in my garden but, a big Jack rabbit. He/she was lazily taking a bite of pea leaves and then a bite of gooseberry leaves and then grooming him/her self. It was a very peaceful time for the rabbit. 

     At this time of year my garden is a jungle. The peas are 2 feet high. It's easy for a rabbit to move around and not be seen.  It's also the time of year when most things have matured and one rabbit isn't going to do much damage. In the spring time I close the gates very tightly.

     So believe it or not I just took this picture . There is a Jack Rabbit hiding in the pea patch but I can' get him to stick his head out of the peas.

        

     So I waited and finally the jack rabbit stuck his head out of the pea patch. He's above the bird bath and to the left.

COULD IT BE?

        Could this guy be Spencer?

        For more than a year I have noticed disturbances in the soil in the flower bed underneath my living room window. Only recently I made the discovery that these disturbances were caused by a rabbit. Even more recently I have caught the culprit spending his/her time in the flowers and shrubs in front of my house. I have been walking by him/her many times and him/her has not flushed  and I didn't know that there was a beast there.  In fact, this is a very cheeky bunny. He/She gets up and moves about two meters and stops to see if I'm  going to leave the area. 

     So this bunny has chosen a prime area to spend the day safely dozing and grooming. And once in a while he/she gets up and enters my back yard. There he/she has helped himself/herself to my garden produce. To date my lettuce, peas, beans and beets have been sampled. 

      It was a blue sky day this morning. 

    So I've set up baracades to try to prevent the bunny from having a healthy lunch.

    How many of you remember the story of M McGregor and Peter Rabbit? I feel like Mr MacGregor.

Some Topics Keep Giving and Giving

        When I started my blog two years ago,  little did I realize that I would do five posts on the white tailed jack rabbit.   I did not intend to write about rabbits. Experiences have occurred which have lead to good stories.

        This urban area has a number of jack rabbits as a permanent population. Most days when I'm out I see a rabbit and sometimes three at a time. Just seeing a rabbit munching on grass or snoozing in some brush does not make a story. Since rabbits are somewhat numerous and very active they sometimes present stories. That is what has happened to me. Interesting happenings take place and I write about them. Now my neighbors are passing on stories and pictures. I've also had to do a little research so I learn some interesting things. It also helps that these animals are cute and move in huge leaps and bounds.     I see so many rabbits that I have jokingly appointed myself as the official rabbit watcher.

     So scroll back and look at some of the posts I've made on the white tailed jack rabbit.

Baby Jack Rabbit with an Attitude

         I received an email this morning which included a couple of pictures of a new born jack rabbit.

        

     My neighbors Mavis and Duane, happened to find this little critter toddling about on their lawn beside the shrubbery. Their first reaction was to get a picture and their second plan was to shoo the little guy back into the shrubbery for his own protection. When they attempted to guide the baby back to the protection of the shrubbery it hissed at them. More than that, it put a paw out as if to shoo them away. So they gave up trying to help and left him to his own design. They did the right thing to leave him alone. Many people pick these little fellows up thinking that they have been abandoned . Not so.

       The doe leaves the new born rabbits about an hour after their birth. The babies leave their birth place almost immediately and go in different directions. Even though they are tiny and young they are very mobile and can move easily. The doe comes back from time to time and finds them and nurses them. They do live a precarious life and a high percentage of them are preyed on by predators. The jack rabbit has come to know that there are fewer predators in an urban setting and the food is plentiful. Therefore we have an ever increasing population of jack rabbits in the city.

      So thanks Mavis and Duane for being alert and getting a picture and telling a story. This little creature displayed a very independent attitude for his age. It's rather amazing that this birth happened on Sept. 5 which is rather late in the season.

RUDE AWAKENING

     Sometimes rude awakenings happen at the most surprising times .


     I was delivering papers at 6 AM and was about a step and a half from the next mailbox when a jack rabbit jumped up . The rabbit had his butt up against the house foundation right under the mail box . He took a couple of little hops and then stopped and looked at me with an evil eye as if to say "You just woke me up ! " I was also wakened to some extent as delivering papers can be fairly subconscious . I was not expecting to find a rabbit under a mailbox.


     I told him I was sorry for disturbing him but it didn't seem to make him feel any better . It had rained so he was on a dry spot which had been sheltered under the eaves . So the spot was dry and comfortable .


     There are several rabbits which have a territory on my paper route and I see them most days . They keep their cover until you are almost up to them .So when they do move you are very close and it can startle you if you are daydreaming .


       They are beautiful creatures and very pleasant to have in the neighborhood .