JOY ALONG THE WAY: RABBITS' TERRITORY OR MINE?

Around four o'clock in the afternoon three rabbits come to play, eat, or sleep in the back yard. Sometimes all of the above. Their play is rather simple, just chasing each other round and round in ever widening circles. One game is a little more intricate. I call it Jump-the-Rabbit, for it sits is similar to our Jump-the-Rope. One rabbit/still. Another rabbit, on its own rabbit timing, runs speedily and directly at the still rabbit as if to cause a bloody collision. But just as it is near impact, the still rabbit jumps into the air and the on-coming rabbit passes beneath, like the rope in our human game. I imagine rabbit laughter but I can't hear it. I don't even see a smile. I can see their little white tails twitching. Maybe that's their expressions of glee.

The rabbits' favorite food is the Dutch clover. They will snip off a long stem and nibble it in slowly from end to blossom. When they reach the blossom they seem to hesitate momentarily, then in a oh-why-not gesture they take in the whole blossom and move on to the next one.

Sometimes the rabbits hop around smelling for something else. I don't know what it is. Maybe dessert. Whatever it is grows around the big latticed garden seat. They disdain a lot of stuff that grows there, but suddenly find something to their great liking. I can't get close enough, even with binoculars, to detect what it is. But with the aid of the binoculars I recently did see something I've never seen before.

A particular rabbit chose a sunny spot in the garden seat area and proceeded to take a nap. Not just any old crouched-down nap. No! It iay on its back, belly up to the sun, its hind feet up, slightly bent at the knees, its front feet crossed as if in reverent appreciation of its situation. Its head was slightly twisted so that the ears remained upstanding and, no doubt, alert. I could even see its eyes were closed. I wanted to call somebody to come see but knew I would disturb the delightful scene.

The walls of my mind are getting exceedingly full of pictures, but that one had to be hung there, ready for viewing when I need a reminder of utter relaxation.

We have only one loose-running (at times) dog in our immediate neighborhood so the rabbits live a somewhat sheltered life. However, if an enemy should appear, I'm sure all the rabbits have neatly shelved away in their minds the inpenetrable trash pile, the hedges around houses, the narrow space under the little sheds. I wonder if they ever look enviously at the squirrelswho can climb so quickly to get out of danger.

Along about June I'll see a little motion in my flower border, where the lawn mower doesn't intrude, and out will come a little six inch, sleek --haired, bigeyed, every-whiskerin-place little rabbit. The flower border will be its nursery for several weeks, although it must wonder about the little rivulets of water that wet its from time to time even though it isn't raining.

One thing I like about rabbits is that I never see them fighting each other. They are free to roam everywhere and not be fearful they have invaded some tyrant rabbit's sovereign state and hence become subject to ethnic cleansing.

I believe that wild life does not labor under the burden of original sin. They live by the instincts they were given, never having been tempted in any rabbit Garden of Eden. And, also, I say they come to my back yard. They were here first. I've settled on their territory as pointed out by Mitch Jayne in an excellent article entitled, "Living on the Edge" in the May issue of lIissouri Conservationist.