persephone33

My sister has a theory.

Bunnies are taking over the world.

Now my sister is, by far and away, the more level headed of the two of us. She’s solid, dependable and practical where I’m kind of fluid, flighty and prone to the whimsical. She and her husband are with Campus Crusade for Christ, which the American college students of my f-list are probably acquainted with. I tell you this because sis is not the girl to be weird for the sake of being weird (like me).

So. Bunnies are taking over the world. My first instinct when she told me this was that I was glad it wasn’t squirrels. I have a rather pathological aversion to squirrels (which sis mocks, by the by). Squirrels wouldn’t be allowed to run rampant if it weren’t for the big fluffy tails; they’d be exterminated. Plus, they throw pecans at my head. I hate them.

But I digress.

There’s an apparent bunny infestation in downtown Annapolis, MD, where sis and her family live… just a block away from the Naval Academy! That’s crazy! Then, this summer as she and her family travelled across the country, she found subsequent infestations in St. Louis, MO, and Iowa City, IA. I told her that where hubby works, close to the Palo Duro Canyon, there were more jackrabbits than you can shake a stick at.

This brings me to the most distressing part of it all. My son, just a week ago, informed me that we have a bunny that lives in our side yard. I dismissed it as storytelling, and hubby actually reprimanded him for lying, because we live in one of the oldest neighborhoods in Amarillo. It’s heavily populated and there aren’t any open fields adjacent. It’s craziness to think of a rabbit living in the side yard.

However, when I was standing at the kitchen window last Thursday, I saw something zip across my field of vision.

I felt my lip curl instinctively; I thought it was a squirrel, but my mouth dropped open as I watched this little fluffy grey-brown animal with the cutest puffy white tail you’ve ever seen munch on the grass (and lilies).

The boys were delighted (well, Ethan was indignant at first, but after I apologized for not believing him he was delighted), and they named him Mergatroid (Don’t ask me why). I call the little fella Harvey.

It backs up my sister’s theory, though.

Bunnies do indeed seem to be taking over the world, and why couldn’t they? They’re innocuous, cute, and multiply like, well, you know….

Woe be to Harvey, though, if he gets in range of Hubby’s .22. Hubs feels like he must do his part in keeping all this bunny madness in check. While I don’t fancy a nest (no – warren, hubby informs me) of rabbits under the house, I’m rather fond of Harvey. He doesn’t look like he wants to be a fascist dictator or like he believes in totalitarianism; he looks sweet.

But I used to feel that way about squirrels, too. And we all know how that turned out.