It
has been a long time since rabbits showed up in our yard, but they were
plentiful when we first moved here. I remember once watching two rabbits
playing leapfrog in our yard by the light of a full moon. As years passed we
saw fewer rabbits, but this year is different.
Our
first sighting of Peter Rabbit was at dusk a few weeks ago. He was between the
garden fence and the gooseberry bushes, eating clover. “How sweet!” I declared.
“Look at the perfect profile of his ears.” We watched from the living room until
he hopped away into the cedar windbreak
To
our knowledge, Peter Rabbit first visited our garden when the rows of greens –
lettuce, spinach, and escarole – were about three inches high. We knew he had
visited because he ate the leaves of the entire row of escarole, leaving little
stubs. We had neglected to block the rabbit-sized opening between the garden
gate and the fence, so we assumed that was his pass to the garden. I thought
the escarole would recover, and it did. We faithfully stuck a 2”x4” board in
front of the opening, but Peter got in anyway and mowed down the escarole
again, leaving spinach and lettuce alone.
Dennis searched in vain for a place in the fence where Peter might be gaining access to our produce department. Twice
more the escarole recovered and twice more Peter ate his fill. It seems that escarole is very hardy stuff,
in spite of being a gourmet rabbit’s favorite food.
One
morning last week Dennis announced that some of our pea vines were wilting.
Immediately I began doing research on fusarium wilt and what to do about it.
The next day Dennis said the wilt was spreading and asked me to come to the
garden to see for myself.
Indeed,
a lot of the vigorous pea vines were wilting.
When
I glanced at the base of the wilted vines I noticed right away that they were
no longer attached to the soil. In fact, the stems were missing from the soil
line to about ten inches above it.
A
rascally rabbit obviously was causing the wilt. When I pointed this out to
Dennis he declared, “This is war!”
The
hunt was on and it is my duty to report that Peter and his sisters Flopsy and
Mopsy, are no longer with us. Sister Cotton-tail may be still on the loose. For
the first time ever, my sympathy lies with Mr. Mcgregor.
Copyright 2015 by Shirley Domer
2 comments:
I doubt they wore those cute jackets and pinafores.
The coyotes took the carcasses overnight, leaving only a little tuft of downy fur. No sign of tiny articles of clothing.
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