After my first 30-mile week in over a month, I was eager to keep that going this week. Sadly, for a variety of reasons (none of them good), I can’t imagine that I’ll get more than 20-25 this weekâmy bad.
One bright note was the bunnies in the hole (not code for a bizarre sexual parlor game).
As I walked the grounds of the vast (not really) estate of the Cul De Sac Shack, wielding a shovel and a foul-smelling, sagging Hefty bag, picking up dog poo before mowing, I saw a new-to-me random hole in the middle of the backyard.
My mind was already thinking about how to fill in the hole and get my lawn back to looking as good as a man whose white trash brain never anticipated having a middle-class yard when I could see that something was living in the hole! Actually, there were LOTS of things living in that hole; four cute as-hell baby rabbits!
I was grateful to have seen the hole before mowing, but I also wondered what the hell I was going to do about it.
First, I grabbed some tool that I don’t know the real name of, nor know why the hell I own it, so we’ll just call it “that thing that tamps down dirt,” and stood it by the hole so as to see where it was during mowing.
I soon found myself mowing the backyard and getting closer to the marker with each pass. Then I saw one of the bunnies make a break for it and make it safely under a nearby pine tree. Then a second, a third, and then a fourth made a hop for it, and now I had three bunnies less than the size of my hand, scared and scattered in the uncut grass. Shit.
After a quick question for Siri about what to do with found bunnies, along with remembering an old episode of (possibly) The Brady Bunch where I think Jan touched a baby bunny, and the mother ate it alive or something, I grabbed a box and some towels to pick the bunnies up and move them to safety.
The little bunnies were so scared, but one allowed me to gently pick it up with a towel and place it in the box. However, as I made my way toward others, they took off toward the first escapee.
I walked toward the others now in my neighbor’s trees and let the lone bunny join its siblings.
I finished my mowing and checked back on the rabbit hole a few times through the late afternoon and evening to see if they returned, with no luck.
Then, several hours later, as I closed up the house and readied the dogs for bed, I looked out and saw two deer casually walking through the yard as various birds grabbed their last snacks before total darkness.
That’s when I noticed an adult-sized rabbit in the yard near where the deer had just passed.
“MOM???” I thought aloud.
Soon, I saw one of the tiny bunnies exit the hole in the yard and make its way towards her like it was escaping a gulag. Then another, another, and another stealthily made their way through the cut grass towards her.
It was hard to see in near darkness, but they were either having a big ol’ snuggle fest, or they were finally getting some food from Ma after their big day with the human and the loud machine.
I could almost hear them excitedly chattering, “There was a big human and a loud machine, but we ran Ma!! We ran!! Move over, I want some food, too!!”
At a time in my life when I now find that I have alienated nearly all friends, family, and humans in my life due to years of self-loathing, depression, and world apathy, I am more and more in awe of the critters in the world and seeing those bunnies reunited with their mother was just what I needed. I would happily watch the human race burn to the ground, but only if the critters continued on as usual.
The photos in the post were taken around the Culd De Sac Shack and during the few hikes I’ve had this week. There will probably won’t be any resting this weekend as I try to get some added miles in my feetz, but who knows.
Later.
THE SOILED SOUNDS TRACK OF THE POST