We’re Hunting Wabbits

Hey you two, get over here.  Mom wants help hunting a rabbit.  Ooh, I couldn't hurt a bunny.  I'm a lover, not a hunter.  Yeah, me too.  I'm a lover, not a hunter.

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You are not a lover, you're lazy!  Now get your butt over here and help!  New Guy, you get a pass 'cause you're still new, but next time you'd better hunt!

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This year’s problems started with “Watership Down”. It’s difficult to tell from the photo, but those weeds are over 6′ tall.

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That’s more than 12 Murphys!

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The season began with these voracious little tyrants. I was kind and didn’t kill them, and how did they repay me? At least one dug its way back into the garden and moved into the bean patch.

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Can you find the bunny hidden in these beans?

Neither could I.

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I was taught that pests don’t like marigolds, but rabbits love them. This marigold had so many pretty flowers on it before the rabbit moved in.

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The poor, devoured plant had the misfortune to grow slightly closer to the beans than it’s cousins and therefore lost its robes of glory.

Totally disgusted with the damage the Bean Rabbit was doing, I decided to try a humane trap. Instead of a rabbit, I caught an opossum.

Not my image. Borrowed from internet.

It turned out the rabbit was too small for the trap and was able to squeeze in and out between the bars. So, for several days I just fed the rabbit. The opossum was safely released to its home in the morning after also having a good meal of fruit.

After days of fruitless (ha ha) wabbit hunting, I startled an adult doe on the hillside. “No way!”, I thought. “I will NOT have you burrowing into this hill and leaving ticks and poop everywhere!” First I cut down all the foliage on the hill, then I sprayed with stinky spray and spread Irish Spring soap chips. I planted yet another pinwheel on the hill. Surely I had won this time.

Nope. The next morning I found my pinwheel knocked over, and this at its base.

(I stood the pinwheel back up.)

Inside that opening you could see little bunny ears and eyes. Aagh!

Despite my failures, I knew I had one weapon left in my arsenal…..

You say there’s a what right behind me?

Aagh! Despite being 3/4 Yorkie, this dog, as they say, won’t hunt! He was completely oblivious to the nest behind him.

(Don’t worry, I wouldn’t have let him hurt the baby bunnies. I just wanted to see if he would notice their scent.)

I don’t care for Hasenpfeffer, but I do like a nice marinara.

I Killed It, Ma!

Cairn terrier stands over slain toy

As you can see, Toby is very proud of his hunting skills. 

I could have used Toby’s killing skills in the garden.  That stinky garden bunny left me only half beans to try to pick for dinner. Then, he pooped out his half of the beans all over the pumpkin patch.  Perhaps I should be grateful for the fertilizer, but I used a very eco-friendly time-released one at planting and did not appreciate his ground raisins.

Next year, Toby, you are on bunny patrol.

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Catch up on the boys’ latest adventure with Dream Our World.  In it, the boys visit the museum of their dreams.

Cover of the book Dream Our World

 

Find the Biscuit

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Coming up with activities to keep Geordie occupied during his first winter proved to be challenging.  He never has been the type of pup to play by himself.  He would much rather have someone else there with him.  (This can be exhausting when your puppy is awake 20 hrs a day!)   Our family dog loved to play “Find the Biscuit” and would search and search until he found every treat we had hidden.  Hoping to buy myself a few minutes of peace and quiet, I introduced Geordie to the game.

Since Geordie wasn’t good at Sit/Stay yet, I had my Mom hold him in one room while I hid a biscuit in another.  After we released him to search, we sat down where we could see him and had a chat.

Geordie searched for a few minutes, then came over to my Mom, made eye contact, and made a noise that had the cadence of “I dunno”.  He clearly wanted her to tell him where his treat was.  Without gesturing, she said, “It is over on the register, behind the end table”.  Geordie paused for a moment to think, got an “Aha!” look on his face, then ran behind the end table to the register and grabbed the biscuit.   The two of us were completely stunned.  Until now, we had no idea that this little 8 month old puppy had the linguistic skills to understand that sentence.   So surprised, we kept jumping around yelling, “He knew what we were saying!  He understood!”

We didn’t realize it, but that was the first indication that we had a puppy Noam Chomsky on our hands.