What is this furry friend REALLY up to?

My house is about 5 years old and we live in a new and developing community. It is in the suburbs but it is currently where the “burbs” meet the country. We have a little creek within walking distance that’s really pretty when it’s not mosquito infested. We take the backroads to school every day and drive through cow pastures. For the first half of the school year, twice a day I listened to 4 little girls mooing on our way to and from. But the neatest (and sometimes a little scary) thing about living back here is that we are close to nature and we get some interesting wildlife from time to time.

Things I have seen on the backroads include a dead wild hog (Our neighborhood is apparently having a huge problem with these hogs. Our house has been fortunate. The hogs know better than to get close to what is the REAL zoo. Our 4 kids will take them down!), raccoons, possums (normal here even if you’re not in the country), armadillo, hawks, vultures, and an occasional deer here and there. I even saw a woodpecker once which I have never otherwise seen in a natural habitat. I have also heard recently of sightings of a rattlesnake (they are mostly further west in the drier parts of Texas so I was a LITTLE bit surprised) and foxes (which I have also never seen in a natural habitat). Last week I thought I saw 2 flamingos and thought I must be crazy until someone else said they saw flamingos back here. We’re in the coastal region but we are still an hour from the coast and I’ve NEVER seen flamingos, even at the beach.

Then there’s what I’ve seen at my own personal house. I once had a hawk sitting on my fence, and we have a bird feeder that attracts a few cardinals now and then. But when we first moved in I saw a black widow on our fence, a queen ant nearly an inch long (I kid you not!) in my upstairs bathroom, and 2 years ago a coral snake (yes, the real thing – red and yellow kills a fellow!) slithered across the front of my porch. So lately the rabbits have been out in the mornings. The kids have fun finding them every few days as we drive to school. The rabbits are actually back here on our street. Well, today one was practically at our front door. So I grabbed my camera.

At first I thought, how sweet! But as I was loading the kids up in the car for school, the noise level was increasing at a way too rapid rate. For some reason Ashley was screaming. Ugh. I was so hoping that was over when I put her to bed last night only to wake up to more of it. Then Reagan started screaming. She is still mad every time I put my hair up. I keep telling her it is summer and she is going to have to deal with it. But in the midst of all the screaming, crying and yelling, the rabbit is still in our front bushes. And that’s when I started thinking, this CAN’T be a very calm and peaceful place for this rabbit. So what is he REALLY up to? He MUST be up to something, otherwise he would be running for the hills!

I can just see it now. In the nearby rabbit village they’ve decided to send out the troops to inspect the neighboring houses and come back with a report. So the little rabbit gets up early this morning and hops on over to our house. He peers through the glass door, but he’s afraid to take the final hop onto the porch after he sees the many unruly humans running around inside.

Then suddenly, “Uh oh! I’ve been spotted. Maybe if I just freeze they won’t notice me. Oh shoot, they’re at the door. My cover’s blown! Why is the woman inside yelling? Oh no, here come smaller humans to the door!” Still frozen. Then the door opens. “I’m outta here!” He hops into the bushes. NOW the woman is coming out! “Help! Warn the others! She has some crazy device that she’s aiming at me! Run for your lives!” He continues to hop all around the flower beds every time I get him in view. “When is she going to stop? What does she want with me? I’d run for cover but I haven’t found out everything I need to know. I must stay no matter what! Wait – the SMALL humans are coming out now! Why is everybody after me? Oh, they’re turning. They’re going back in. I made it!”

I start loading everybody into the car. That is when Ashley decided to start screaming. Then Reagan is screaming. The rabbit stays in the yard, even though he can hear the torture going on inside the garage. He is paralyzed with fear. What the rabbit doesn’t know is that the mother human is also often paralyzed with fear at the sounds of her screaming children! The rabbit gets on his walkie talkie and reports back “There are dangerous torturous humans at this house. Do not venture over here. It is chaos and us poor rabbits would surely die just from fright! However, anyone seeking food, if you are okay with risk-taking, there are plenty of little niblets near the garage. Apparently food is thrown out of the car on a daily basis. It’s ours for the taking!”

He is nowhere to be found as we are backing out of the garage.

PS.  I posted this yesterday and now I have to add that last night while I was driving the babysitter home we saw one of those silver foxes!  At first we thought it was a coyote but after looking them both up it must have been the fox.  So cool!