The Bunny Invasion

As a young child, a few rabbits lived nearby.  My parents weren’t fond of the nibble marks on our strawberry plants but I disregarded their dismay at the ruined fruit because who could be angry at such adorable creatures – I was smitten.

 

A few years later, my 4^th grade teacher tasked us with writing a ‘book’ based on an animal of our choosing.  We were asked to explain how a certain characteristic (also of our choosing) came to be.  My story was titled “How the Rabbit Got Its Tail” (although 9-year-old me apparently played fast and loose with grammar rules as I’d actually written “… It’s Tail” – but I managed to graduate from elementary school so…).

In case you ever want to purchase the book, skip this paragraph because it’s full of plot spoilers.  The tale establishes that the protagonist didn’t originally have a tail.  One day, the long-eared main character was being chased by a hungry dog, so he scampered into an art school.  The gist is that he accidentally got glue on his butt, and fell on a cotton ball.  That clumsiness was fortunate because the hound was about to take a chomp out of the innocent prey but instead wound up with a mouthful of cotton, leading to breathing issues and the ability for the bunny to escape.  While not detailed in the book, one could extrapolate that due to the protection this fluffy new appendage provided, real tails started developing naturally as an evolutionary* need.

 

*Legally required qualifier:  No research was done on Darwinian adaptation to support this theory. 

 

My literary prowess aside, I continued to enjoy coming across the critters from time to time, and did cross paths with many of them (or perhaps the same one many times) in Chicago’s Lincoln Park.  So imagine my joy at discovering that the area around my Arizona home is a hare hotspot!

When I moved to my new state in April, 2023, I quickly noticed that the adorable animals were fairly prevalent.  During my a.m. walks, it was almost guaranteed there’d be at least one (almost always at the same location).  In May, I came across a fluffle (yes a real term for a group of them!) while strolling near a golf course.  Although it’s perhaps bad manners for non-players to be on the fairway, there were 6 bunnies flouting the rule (I obviously disregarded it too but how do you not check out a fluffle!).  Only 3 appear in my picture…the others hopped away to avoid poor-etiquette shaming.

 

But, as the temperatures have started to approach triple digits more consistently, I haven’t seen a single wiggle-y nosed creature in weeks.  Who can blame them for trying to avoid oven-hot temperatures, but I do miss walking amongst that wildlife (and no, I don’t want any substitutes to fill the gap…snakes please stay away).

 

Some questions to use for your blog-club discussions:

 

• Do rabbits head north for the summer?
• Were Saturday a.m. Looney Tunes (or the chocolate-milk pushing character, Quicky) a catalyst to my affection?
• Is it pure coincidence that I decided to write about this topic before realizing we’re in the Year of the Rabbit?

Feel free to comment below with your answers, I’m all ears!