Frolicking Rabbits

Many years ago (13 in fact, which feels like "many"!)  I was driving to the nearest mall with all my kids + 1 friend in the car. At the time my oldest, Rob, was around 12 or 13 years old. As we drove past a local cattle farm Rob hollered from the back of the van, "Mom, look at those cows wrestling in the pasture!"

"Umm Rob, they're not "wrestling" honey."

"What are they doing then?" he asked innocently.

"Rob, you're old enough to know what they're doing. Think about it for a just a minute."

He thought for a minute. "Frolicking?" I heard his friend snicker.

I stifled a laugh. "Frolicking"??? Where did he come up with THAT word? Clearly we needed a talk when we got home. "Yeah Rob, they're frolicking."

Rob is now 26 and has four beautiful little girls. I think he got it figured out!

So that brings me to rabbits. Frolicking and rabbits clearly go together, don't you think? The problem is rabbits are not so smart. They frolic all the time only to later dig nests in my yard, seemingly oblivious to the fact my yard reeks of a predator called "dog". When they're not frolicking or digging nests, they're eating my plants. Yes, rabbits live to frolic, dig and eat. Frolicking rabbits!

A week or so our dog Zurri was doing her "woof" thing in the backyard. This is not the "BARK BARK that she does when someone dares walk down our street, nor is it the majorly irritated "Woowoo wooo wooo" she does when the meter reader comes through the yard. This is a low "Woof" that she repeats about every 30 seconds. It's her "I really want to eat you!" noise.

I looked out the window to see what she was woofing about. There they were...frolicking rabbits just outside the fence.  Zurri has a very strong prey drive, with her favorite prey being rabbits! Stupid rabbits. Do you know what happens when dogs eat rabbits? They get every type of parasitic worm you can think of. No...really.  I called the dogs back in the house so Zurri would stop drooling and hopefully forget about the rabbits. I know, I know, but one can hope, right? Besides...we're good dog owners and try not to let our dogs bark incessantly. But I digress....

Which brings us to today. Asher came home from school, ate lunch and went down for his nap. I took the opportunity to close my eyes on the couch for just a little bit before Angela came home. I debated about bringing the dogs in from the yard but it was a beautiful day and I felt bad for bringing them in just to sit inside with me. I was just dozing off when I heard, "Woof!"........(insert 30 second pause)...."Woof!"

Oh you have GOT to be kidding me!  I looked out the window and sure enough, Zurri is in Standard Poodle "point", which means her docked tail is going 100 mph and her eyes are locked on something in the woods. UGH! I couldn't see what it was, and since we have a lot of wildlife in the area I wondered if it was an injured critter or something. I went out in the yard to have a look-see. Nothing. I got down to Zurri's eye level and looked in the direction she was locked on. There I saw it. A rabbit - probably one of those frolicking in the same area last week - has nested less than 10 feet from the fence in plain sight of the dogs.

Frolicking rabbits!!!!

Rabbit haters (including Dean) would think nothing of going out there and destroying the nest that probably already has baby rabbits in it. As much as I am annoyed with rabbits, I can't destroy baby rabbits. They're just innocent, hairless, ugly babies! Yes, in a couple of weeks they'll be stupid rabbits trying to get into the yard only to become lunch for Zurri. Still...can't do it.

The next few weeks will now be spent listening to Zurri "Woof!" at the mother rabbit on her nest, "Woof" at the babies as they come out of the nest, and "Woof!" at them as they themselves frolic around right outside the fence.

Frolicking rabbits!

*Edited to Add*
It's now 11:00 pm. About 10:30 the dogs went for "last outs" of the night. Roman, my 15 lb. miniature poodle, managed to somehow dig a hole under the fence fall out of the yard. It took awhile to find him in the woods since  he'd gone off chasing the mother rabbit. This makes me quite nervous since we have a very busy highway very close to our house.  When he did finally come back it was clear he'd had himself a bedtime snack of baby rabbits. I'm sure he'll love what I make him eat next week in the form of worming medicine! I hate when my dogs act like...well...dogs.