Tuesday, June 28, 2016

another one bites the dust


Our yard has been teeming with wildlife this spring and summer. There's a family of foxes - including two baby foxes, who we often see romping and rolling in our yard on weekend mornings. I haven't been able to get a picture of them, but fox kits are just about the cutest things I've ever seen. Gravy and Banjo disagree. I'm surprised they haven't broken a window in their rage that these critters are playing in their yard! I've seen the vixen almost every day over the pasts few weeks, too. And the bunnies! SO MANY BUNNIES. Bunnies, bunnies, everywhere.

I've watched three bunnies zip around our yard chasing each other, and then witnessed two of them doing unspeakable things in the bushes. (Making more bunnies!) I've watched tiny baby bunnies - some the size of hamsters, some the size of guinea pigs, hopping across our patio on a daily basis. They are fearless and clueless and sometimes get within two feet of me. I've tried to scare them off to prevent bloodshed. With a greyhound and a coonhound constantly patrolling our backyard, I suppose it was only a matter of time before the inevitable occurred. I only wish it hadn't happened right in front of me!

Unfortunately, it's time for more haikus.

Dear Rabbits, I tried
to warn you about the beasts.
Our yard is not safe.

Why do you come here?
Two eighty pound dogs wait to
kill you with their mouths. 

Hippity hopping
Baby bunnies everywhere
No sense of danger.

From flat dog to fast 
dog. Gravy is built for speed.
Zero to fifty.

Greyhound on the loose.
Run bunny, run for your life! 
Oh no, you're too slow!

Lounging on my chair,
drinking a beer. Gravy runs.
Baby bunny dies.

A flash of red fur,
Gnashing teeth in the flowers.
RIP bunny.

In a split second
Gravy runs, grabs, and kills it.
Apex predator.

A murderous scene
Happens in my own backyard
Cold-blooded killer.

There's fur in his teeth
Now he has a taste for blood
Let's catch another!

Scream bloody murder.
That was me yelling at dogs.
Please don't call the cops.

Yard full of babies.
So tiny and sweet. Gravy
chews on bunny meat.

A summer's evening.
Peaceful, calm. Interrupted
by canine killers.

Mother Nature, so
cruel. I did not need a
front row seat for that.

Woke up the next day.
More baby bunnies in the
yard. They never learn.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Ohhhh noooo poor bunnies! I can only imagine what our kitties, namely Max, would bring back if we let him roam our old backyard/green belt. He's the most gentle kitty...just not towards little critters he likes playing with...

I love that you have foxes though! Cuuuttttteee. Hopefully there's no haikus tthat involve crunching fox bones in the near future.

Funnelcloud Rachel said...

OMG, I definitely don't want to write any dead fox haikus!

However, Larry found a BONE in our yard when he was mowing the lawn - right where the baby foxes like to hang out. Hmmm...

Unknown said...

Maybe the bone belonged to something the foxes ate? Gulp. #nofoxhaikus

Funnelcloud Rachel said...

That's what we thought, but I can't quite figure out what it came from. It's a big bone, not a chicken wing or a rabbit. Kind of looks like a deer antler...

Unknown said...

Maybe the foxes ganged up on a deer...or maybe the Mama fox scavenged a deer carcass in the woods and brought it back to the den for the babies.