Monday, May 14, 2007

Mowing for bunnies

I raised rabbits when I was in high school. It was a 4-H project that got out of control, very quickly. The whole thing ended in a slaughter-a-thon.

The breeding-like-bunnies 4-H project has NOTHING on the breeding and nesting capabilities of wild rabbits. Seriously. Mowing the yard and pastures is more like a mass murder than merely trimming the weeds and grass to manageable heights. Do you have any idea what a horribly sickening noise a baby rabbit makes when it meets the blades of the John Deere? Yeah, it's not pleasant. And I can't avoid them. I feel TERRIBLE when I hit them. I've tried to spare their little lives. I've mowed around visible nests and my mow time has gone from about a two hours for the yard to nearly three hours because I'm driving so freaking slow to give the babies a chance to escape. A friend tells me "They're vermin. Who cares." But...but....but...they're bunnies! And I'm a reluctant bunny killer.

Yesterday Unruly and I captured two little bunnies and squirrled them away in her wagon while I finished mowing the yard. I mowed over the nest once and they scattered, thankfully swift enough to avoid the Whirling Blades of Death. But they are at that awkward age where they know to run, but aren't quite sure what to do once they start running. So, they were pretty easy to catch because they just kind of sat there, confused. After I finished mowing we gathered up the scattered bunny fur (the fur momma pulled to keep them warm and snug in their bunny hole, not from some unfortunate baby I mowed) and put it back in the nest, put the babies back and covered them up with more fur and some grass. They stayed. Their lives were spared.

And Unruly? She wanted to keep them, as pets. So we could have the miracle of the breeding bunnies right in a cage. As if fields full of bunnies isn't enough.

3 comments:

Jane said...

Heh. They ARE vermin. They're nasty flea and tick and mite and god knows what else infested (cute) little rats. Except they're not even as useful as rats - rats at least eat garbage and carcasses and stuff. The rabbits just spread disease as often as they lift their tails, make more rabbits, and munch on your flowers and baby trees and grass and garden.

Bleh. Unruly needs to raise black snakes instead. Circle of life and all that.

Jenn said...

See, you are just NOT a nice person. Big meanie. Bunny hater. And snakes in my house will NEVER happen, not a million billion quadrillion years. Ick.

Slackermommy said...

I love Unruly! I'm a bunny lover too. I own two domestic bunnies. I'd have to take Xanax after mowing your place!