Who Ate My Salad?

I hate rabbits! New subdivisions are sprouting up in my neighborhood and the more vegetation and trees are lost, more wild and displaced rabbits we will have. Cute as they are, I just do not have any affection for these wild rabbits that are running in my garden and making a salad of my plants. Last year, we lost all potential okra harvest because the rabbit decided that at 2-inch height, the newly sprouted okra seeds tasted better than slimy fruit. This year, my tomato seedlings were gone as soon as they saw light. The only villain – the rabbit! I do not even attempt to plant tulips anymore because three years ago, I saw another of their relative munching on my gorgeous pink tulips. So, I make every effort to drive them away as soon as I see one. I hurl my broom to frighten them and spray costly fox urine from the hunting store to make sure that they don’t come back until my seedlings have grown enough. Okay, I am not that bad, I feel a lot of guilt sometimes that I am not sharing nature’s bounty with these cute little creatures, but can’t they wait until my plants are big enough to provide fruit? They are welcome to eat all the weeds but not my new plants!

Well, I thought that my penchant for driving away the rabbits will be forever until a couple of days ago when my uncle discovered a nest. Yes, cute little baby rabbits under our Bradford Pear tree hidden under my overgrown mint bush. I thought there were four but then I saw five yesterday. Four days ago, their eyes were still half closed so we let them be and covered them with mulch for protection. I always wondered if Mama Rabbit comes by to feed them. Otherwise, I would want to put a dish of milk hoping that they would find it. Yesterday, my guess was proven true, Mama Rabbit actually comes by to feed them. And what a surprise, these baby rabbits can now hop from their Mama and return to their nest so that upon inspection, they still looked fragile and uhmm, helpless. Well, well, are they now trying to trick me? Keo, my friend Innah’s son, came by to visit this lunch time and we went to see the babies. We thought they were gone but we found them under the plastic that we wrap around the root of the tree for watering. Surprised, they started hopping around the garden. Hmmm, I asked myself, I think I’ve been kind long enough, should I start running after them now before they begin munching on my green bean sprouts?