Where Have All the Bunnies Gone?
One of the biggest surprises about moving to this little mountain community I live in is the way things get around. Word travels fast around here, whether the words are true or not. As I’ve mentioned before, our dogs don’t have the best reputation on the mountain. I’m not going to say they had no part in earning this reputation. They have scared some of our neighbors by running out onto the road and barking as the neighbors walk by, and if I was one of the neighbors this happened to I’d have been scared too. We’ve tried to be responsive and responsible, building a dog run behind the house, changing morning walk routes, even going to obedience school. It’s a challenge, but the dogs are getting better and many friends and neighbors have been more than happy to participate in their training.
So the only thing I could do today was laugh when one of my friends on the mountain told me that the word on the street is that our dogs are eating all the bunnies on the mountain and that is why there is a shortage of bunnies. First of all, there is no shortage of bunnies. In fact, Jeff and I have commented more than once this season about how many rabbits we see on the road every time we drive toward home. Bunnies have decimated our kale and tomato plants this summer, and their tracks were everywhere in the snow last winter. And I’ve never seen any of our dogs eating a bunny. They probably chase them if they see them, but I don’t think any of them is fast enough to catch one.
Maybe whoever started this rumor got our dogs confused with the coyotes we hear every night. Or maybe with our cats, who have been known to eat a bunny or two.
