Monday, September 12, 2011

Bunny Capturing

How is it possible that I could watch someone trying to corral a baby bunny for 10 minutes and never turn on my video camera or at least take a still picture?
Well, it happened this morning.
I met my friend Sheila for coffee and we settled outside in the metal chairs. Across the street from the coffee shop is a church and an elementary school with a big front lawn and some towering fir trees. At one point, I saw a rabbit jumping across the grass.
Here's a picture of Sheila from a coffee date that we had earlier in the year.
As we continued our conversation, a tiny bunny came scuttling across the street and hopped the curb.
"Oh," I said, pointing it out. The 6-inch long bunny hopped across the concrete and ran smack into the brick wall of the coffee shop.
"Is it blind?" I wondered.
"Sheila, you have to save it," I said. I'm not sure why I decided that Sheila, instead of me, should be the one to capture the bunny. It ran up and down along the wall evading us. Sometimes it would get wedged into a spot and I'd think we would have it for sure, but it always made a break toward me and would get past me. Apparently, I am no good at catching baby bunnies.
At one point, he headed for the parking lot and hid under a car tire. I used my sunglasses to shoo him back toward the building.
We decided that if we could herd him across the street, the mother would take care of him from there.
I saw the mother in the lawn across the street running back and forth at a crow that kept landing there. I wondered if the crow had taken a baby or maybe the mother didn't know where her baby was and blamed the crow. She paused to chase a suspicious acting squirrel too.
Meanwhile, Sheila continued to chase the bunny.
I decided that my job would be to halt traffic if we ever got the bunny to run toward the road. So I stood by the street while Sheila and another coffee shop patron cornered the bunny.
The poor thing had slowed down a lot. He must have been exhausted.
Sheila nabbed him and held him against her chest as he squirmed and wiggled.
We crossed the street and walked across the lawn toward the big fir tree where the mother sat waiting. At least, I hoped that was the mother and not a cat in hiding.
Sheila released the bunny and he hopped straight to the tree, past his mother and disappeared in the dirt.
The mother bunny did not even thank us. She sat there for a few seconds then followed her offspring.

4 comments:

Linda said...

That was nice of you two. Hard not to rescue a baby.

bermudaonion said...

I'm glad the baby bunny is okay!

Michelle said...

Had me on the edge of my seat!
Yay! I love happy endings and I could feel the mama bunny's relief.
I say you and Sheila deserve a French pastry with your coffee or at least a piece of carrot cake. ;)

Paulita said...

Ah, thanks for your generosity, Michelle. I'll make sure we get a pastry, and since Sheila doesn't eat gluten, I'll have to eat hers too!

Cockadoodle Doo or Cocorico?

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