Well, I get a call, there are some juvenile cottontail rabbits across the lane, neighbor is cutting the grass, and was afraid this one would get caught in the mower, he just froze, likely the one a predator would get, part of the game with nature. So I go over, I'm like the game warden around here, always a bird fallen from a nest to raise or some similar thing, every year and I always figure if the roles are reversed, how would I like to be treated, so I am as fair as I can be. So its a nice evening, a bit humid, but a breeze, I take the little fellow over and he's like Joe Cool, not a worry, cottontails are timid, this guy would have made a good pet I suppose, so he's enjoying some attention, and after awhile the ears pop up and he slowly scampers off, but the wrong direction, to my back step, right next to my garden. He moved right in, good cover, a paradise of forage, things are looking good for a few days. So I look out the window and he's in there, and by now, knows all the places he can get in and out, well almost, there was still a hint of confusion when I went in to get him out and I did corner and recapture him. Adults can't make it in, just one his size, was amazing to watch him negotiate the paths he knew to run. When I was a kid there was not much I would not catch by hand, often times with gloves to protect me, rabbits, woodchucks, muskrat, mice, frogs whatever, was smart and fast enough just before my first year in school to catch one of these rabbits when my father and the farmer were clearing out an old fence row in a large field with the D7, never forgot that one. In this garden the low lying weeds are mostly prevalent, with the pink/thick stem small leaves, we can eat this plant too, + some other weeds coming up, yet theres 3 rows of lettuce in various stages, he never touched it. I went in and got him, so here's Joe Cool, before I redirected his 2nd send off, sometimes the critters just amaze me, I sent him off to the deep grass, he's got tons of friends out there, and they just love the hill and adjacent field here, in all the years I've never had any trouble with them, even in dry times, there just seems to be plenty of forage and I look at them as a back up source of food, if the need was ever there, some years we do hunt and take a few. I just thought this photo was funny, I got to hand it to him he sure is brave to live in my garden LOL ! I'm brave to handle him given the fleas and or ticks, you do have to be careful.
The rest of his crew literally lounge in my driveway, lie flat out if on vacation on the beach, and if you are slow and quiet they are not afraid at all, last night one tried to get up in a hurry, he looked like he just did a shift at the local watering hole, fell right over, just laid there, like no one saw that right? LOL ! With all the predators, owls, hawks, coyotes, weasels, cats, its amazing how they do so well here.
The rest of his crew literally lounge in my driveway, lie flat out if on vacation on the beach, and if you are slow and quiet they are not afraid at all, last night one tried to get up in a hurry, he looked like he just did a shift at the local watering hole, fell right over, just laid there, like no one saw that right? LOL ! With all the predators, owls, hawks, coyotes, weasels, cats, its amazing how they do so well here.
