Then there are the bunnies

We live in an urban neighborhood, not very far from a major freeway.  And yet we have all sorts of critters that seem to find our backyard.  This last spring and summer, we had a small rabbit, who our son named 'Benny', although we were way too shy to ask if it was a girl bunny or a boy bunny.  The bunny became accustomed to our comings and goings in the garden as long as we didn't get too close.  We have this very large quince, which was supposed to be a 'dwarf', but which has become known as the quince that took over the flower bed.  We eventually had to extend the bed area several feet to accommodate the lovely thing, which is glorious in the spring and sometimes reblooms during the fall equinox as well.  Anyway we noted that Benny seemed to find the quince a sanctuary to dart into if humans got too close.  That was the way it was at first.  Then we noticed that Benny spent quite a lot of time under the quince, because Benny was spotted coming out of the quince shelter often.

Since our precious Max cat passed last year, there is no one to threaten a bunny in our garden.  However, we found that Benny apparently could threaten some of the plants, especially a begonia I had transplanted into a flowerbed across from our breakfast table window.  Still, what were we to do?  Benny mostly ate grass when we were watching, so we just let well enough alone.  Then a month or so ago, one of us spotted a bigger bunny, with longer ears.  We don't know if this is Benny, transformed by growth (Benny had shorter ears at first acquaintance), or a stranger.

And then, today, I walked out into the garden room to check the morning world, and there was a really small bunny making its way across the patio in dainty small steps.  Suddenly a squirrel came down from the tree there.  The tiny bunny froze.  The squirrel moved on down the tree in what I would describe as a threatening manner.  The tiny bunny flashed away across the garden so quickly it was amazing.  Then the rascally squirrel turned and climbed back up the tree.  It was one of those moments we treasure, seeing a bit of the natural world we can forget in our world of freeways and cell phones and all that.