Not in my Backyard

I've shared with you before about the wildlife that sometimes populates our backyard. Everyone was present and accounted for except for last summer's rabbit. We were so hoping that we'd see evidence that either that rabbit and/or its family had survived over the winter, but it looked like our hopes were in vain.

Not so! A rabbit finally showed up, although we aren't sure if maybe it's not a hare instead of a rabbit. It's quite large and was enjoying a feast of the young greens in one part of the garden.

I really do love animals but I'm not much of a cat person. Okay, I'm a sucker for those tiny little furry kittens, but not much of a fan of the adults. We have a black cat that belongs to someone locally (it's wearing a collar) that likes to make itself at home in my yard. Last summer that darned cat killed one of the birds. It has been looking for a repeat performance this summer.

So, here we have our rabbit/hare stretched out in the grass and along comes that black cat. Immediately the cat's ears laid back and it began hissing. You could see it was preparing to pounce on the rabbit. I was frantically looking for some kind of weapon to get the cat away from the rabbit when the rabbit took care of business itself. It levered itself up onto its hind legs, put its front paws in front of its body, like a boxer preparing for a fight, and charged at the cat. I've never seen anything move as fast as that cat did. The rabbit chased the cat all the way out of the yard and then the rabbit headed for the hills.

I do believe that rabbit has finally settled the idea of whose backyard it is. This happened last Tuesday and we haven't seen hide nor hair of the cat since then. I left a small offering of some carrots under the bush where I last saw the rabbit. A few hours later the carrots were gone. A small enough payment for what that rabbit did. I'd like to thank that rabbit for being a useful member of the K household, and for giving me some adrenalin-raising moments in an otherwise bland day.