A mommy bunny has lived behind the house for several years. Last year she hollowed out a shallow nest for her young in the front garden by the street - where it was quickly ravaged, much to our dismay. This year, she has chosen the edge of forest for her nesting spot and it has seen some death as well as new life. Last week a single baby bunny was tentatively hopping beneath the leaves of my hosta - which tells you something of its size! I've taken a few photos of mom and of her solitary offspring - they are sitting in the side yard, about 20 feet from the house and at least that far from one another. I took the pictures from inside the front door.
New life has also appeared out back - in the form of kittens. The momma cat is a wild one, probably abandoned by someone leaving a townhouse in our community. She is well groomed, very clean, and very, very shy. She has had several litters of young under our next door neighbor's deck. Odd how the neighbor is never home, thus the deck is a perfect hiding place for the young ones - both from weather and from fox, coons, and other predators.
Several weeks ago Momma cat allowed her 4 young ones to come out of hiding - I heard them playing on our neighbors deck, jumping from chair to chair, and generally having a gay old time. Soft touch that I am, I immediately went out and bought some kitten food and proceeded to put food out each day. The Momma cat enjoyed her share, as did the kittens, when Daddy let them near the bowl!!! Daddy is a tame cat, comes calling at our back door now when he's in the neighborhood. He loves to be petted, but don't go near his tail or under-belly unless you want to be attacked! Mom cat is all black while Daddy has a white bib + under-belly and 4 white paws. The kittens are a mix of the two, nearly all are black with various small amounts of white on them.
I was surprised this weekend when a totally NEW batch of young kits came out from hiding - these must have been born while the other batch was still there, probably from a daughter of the aforementioned parents. These kittens all look just like the others. Pretty soon we'll have a whole herd of black cats prowling around! I'm not quite as enthusiastic today about that prospect as I was a few weeks ago with only 4 kittens showing up. They have since totally disappeared - replaced by their cousins or step-siblings or whatever! But they sure are cut... aren't they?
2 comments:
We are seeing rabbits this year every morning. We hadn't seen any for years. I wonder what is different?
The first year we had rabbits, I watched in fascinated delight. Rabbits, however, live up to their reputation, and our neighborhood is now full of bunny families. They are voracious eaters, and they prefer the young and tender plants. Now, I curse them and their progeny and berate my sorry dogs that think they are friendly playmates.
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