Category: Critters

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Long May You Run

I continue to mourn our two rabbits, which went to a new home on Sunday. We can’t take either of them with us to California. 🙁 I’ve been thinking about Daisy and her romps around the backyard; how happy she would be. For some reason, I find Neil Young’s “Long May You Run” coming to mind when I think of the bunny.

My basement office is a desolate place now, and the backyard is a field of dread. Something about the rabbits—and their simple tranquility—represents a lifestyle lived in this house. Their departure has taken away part of our home. I loathe coming down into the basement to work now. I count the remaining days to our departure. We can’t leave this place soon enough. 

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Bye Bye Bunnies

Today we sent our two beloved bunnies, Daisy and Mayflower, to a new home. I’ve referred to them on this Weblog as Bun Bun and Little Bun, respectively. Daisy was hardest for me to let go. She and I shared my basement office for more then four years. She was a delightful companion.

For weeks, we had been looking for a home but with no success. Last Monday, my wife posted to three home school lists, with no promising response from anyone. The week ahead would have been one of desperation, with the rabbits going to an animal shelter on Saturday if they had no takers. We didn’t want to put them in a shelter. 

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Bugs!

I started photographing bugs; snapped this baby praying mantis through bushes. Bad angle, bad lighting. I’m shooting with Canon EOS 20D dSLR and Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM lens. My main lens is the EF 135mm f/2L USM. Right now, these are my only lenses, as I transition from zoom to prime lenses. In the meantime, my Nokia N95 cell phone covers any close-to-subject shots. 

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The Fox and the Hares

Well, you know you’ve been out of town and out of touch, when there are 5,523 new posts to read via RSS. Oh my! Among them: Jean McDermott has an update on the feral rabbit hunt, lest the vermin—ah, cute furballs—defoliate Alaska. I blogged about part one of her bunny adventure the day before her most recent update. How’s that for timing?

So, writes Jean: “I successfully caught six baby rabbits over Memorial Day weekend. Three black ones, two gray ones, and a tortoise color fawnish one. Let me tell you, baby bunnies are extremely cute”. But she resisted petting the lot, to avoid terrifying them to death. However, the cuteness overwhelmed the folks over at animal control. 

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Not So Fair Hare in Fairbanks

For about two weeks, I’ve been meaning to write about the plight of Jean McDermott and the feral rabbits. Her story—told on her blog, Jean’s Northern Niche—started last November, when someone “let loose their domestic rabbits in my neighborhood“. Oh. Oh. “They have proliferated, to say the least”. Jean, who lives in Fairbanks, Alaska, notes that a good breeding pair of rabbits can produce—get this—”13 MILLION young (the young breed as young as four months) within three years”.

She makes clear that feral rabbits, “eat EVERYTHING…Just do a Google search on ‘rabbit population’ to see what a terribly destructive power rabbits can be. Here in Alaska they are dealing with the sub-zero temperatures just fine, too”.Â