In the spring, I was tidying up the garden when I noticed that one of my strawberry plants had died.
Strawberry bed without chicken wire cover.
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The strawberry bed has a foot high metal wall with chicken wire on top. When I lifted the wire to pull up the dead plant, I found that some stupid b*tch bunny had hopped on top of the chicken wire and clawed and chewed her way into the bed. She dug a hole under one of my unlucky plants and laid her clutch of fur-covered destroyers. When I picked up the plant, I found a huge wad of her hair where the roots should have been and three sleeping vermin underneath.
Evil lagomorphs where strawberry should be.
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I tried to shoo the undersized monsters away to wreak their havoc elsewhere, but they were stubbornly reluctant to leave.
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Voracious cuniculus is trying to blend in with the dirt.
(I’m not gonna eat that strawberry. Honest.)
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Hence the term “harebrained”.
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You can’t see me!
(Oh yes I can.)
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For the rabbit lovers out there, no cottontails were (seriously) harmed in the making of this blog post. (My turnips, peas and strawberries suffered, however!!) I did tell them that if I caught them in the garden again I would make Hasenpfeffer out of them. So far they’ve wisely heeded my warning.
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Murphy putting his terrier stink in the garden to try to keep the pests away.
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Hello? Are there any bunnies in there?
The Adventures of Bitey Dog 
We would tell Nox, “Bite rabbits good, shake rabbits good, chase rabbits good.” She never caught a rabbit, but she tried. She wanted to have a good bite and shake! Nox was an excellent mouser and would bury the remains under a mound of sunflower hulls from the bird feeder. We did find dead mice in her bed under a blanket a couple of times.
Oh my gosh, what a good hunter Nox is! Geordie was my hunter. He killed small animals, but once they stopped squeaking he lost interest in them. Not long after this bunny incident, Murphy finally did chase a rabbit. I’m not sure if he has the killer instinct to bite and shake, though.
Nox, wanna come visit my garden? Lotsa Hasenpfeffer!!
Nox looks at rabbits with disdain these days. She can no longer run to chase them. She will pee on their stinky footprints though.
Dog pee in the garden would help, I”m sure!
::sigh:: I’m a city-dweller and not a gardener, so it’s hard for me to think ill of bunnies. Toffee, however, would agree with Murphy!
A lot of my neighbors love the little critters, but none of them are trying to feed themselves out of a garden. You opinion changes when you are competing for resources!
We urbanites would all starve if we had to provide for ourselves. My grandparents would be embarrassed!
Mine too. I am really struggling, and I’m not producing nearly enough.
It really does.
Good ol’ Murphy! He’s really trying to make himself an asset to you!
Just being himself makes him the biggest asset! ❤️
You are going to make a lot of money growing rabbits.
I’ve considered it. We’re zoned against chicken but not rabbits. 🤔
We get a LOT of bunnies, too! And they do like to chew! (and eat, etc! 😉 )
Too bad on the strawberry plant…a salad with strawberries and blueberries is always so lovely! 🙂
(((HUGS))) to you and PATS and RUBS to Murphy! Coop sends Cooper-KISSES!! ❤️❤️
Fortunately I was able to save some strawberry plants, so we’ve had fruity salad toppings this summer. 😊
It wouldn’t be so bad if the bunnies ate a bean here and there, but they eat the whole dang plant. Then nobody gets anything. 😠
Give Cooper some sniffs and wags from Murphy! ❤️
Will do! 🙂
🐰🐰🐰 Eek! 😮 😉
I love the bunnies. So does Maverick. He loves to yank my arm out of the socket so he can go visit the bunnies. Thankfully, he’s never eaten one! Yet. 🙂
Geordie had that same enthusiasm. My left arm still doesn’t work right thanks to him. I couldn’t let him off leash, so he never caught one, but he had the heart for it.
Maverick, please stop trying to draw and quarter mommy. It’s really not a good idea.
Mommy is no longer walking Maverick – even to the car. Bunnies and chipmunks like to stare at us from under the truck parked across from Maverick’s car – so Mom pulls his car into the garage now.
Good score, Maverick! You got your own car out of this deal! 👍😆
And the best part is that HE got the Mercedes!!!
Whoo! Good job!
Silly question – but when you say they ate the whole plant, is that leaves and all, or that they pull the plant out to eat the berries, and it dies? Linda
These bunnies ate bites out of the strawberries (but not the whole berries) then moved on to eating entire baby bean and pea plants. They ate all the leaves and left stubby little stems. With no leaves, you can’t get flowers or beans. ☹️.
They do kindly leave the roots, however. 🙄
Ahhhh Mother Nature – she’s always so full of beauty… and beasties! xx
Too many hungry beasties this year! 😆
🙃