Shhhh!, be very, very quiet . . . .

I love my dogs, I really do, but something about them barking at 7am on weekend mornings doesn't amuse me one bit, and I'm sure it doesn't amuse my neighbors either. Now, I don't mind them barking as much when it's at something useful, like someone trying to break into my car, or someone snooping around the sides of my house, but when it's at something pointless, like the cat sitting out on the sidewalk, or the squirrel up in the tree, it gets old really quickly.

Saturday, Brody started barking just after 7am. I figured it was at a squirrel, based on the tone of his bark, but I looked out the window and he had his nose planted against the chain link fence looking into the backyard of the slum next door. I found this interesting, since the slum is now empty and undergoing much needed reconstruction, so I had no idea what he was barking at. At this point I'm awake, and going back to sleep impossible, so I go downstairs and out to see what he's all excited about. Guess what I see looking through the fence? Not a cat, or a squirrel, but a rabbit. A nice, soft, fluffy, bunny rabbit.

I'd ponder where this rabbit came from, but I think I already know the answer. Truth is, I'd seen the rabbit and its friend several months earlier when someone abandoned them or dumped them in our neighborhood. In all honesty, I figured they be dead by now, but this one looked nice and healthy, and quite content on the other side of the fence from my maniac dog. Since the house was now abandoned, the rabbit was sitting there munching on the grass just grinning and wiggling its nose at poor Brody. The bunny didn't look like it was leaving and since I couldn't just let Brody bark all morning, I walked around the empty house and chased the rabbit off, but his friend showed up Sunday morning for a repeat performance. This time, I took Brody out to the front porch with me where I intended to sit and read the paper, but alas, the bunny from Saturday morning was now across the street nibbling on my neighbors flowers. I was tempted to just let Brody go to see if we could just end this whole rabbit problem all together, but decided that was rather cruel and instead took Brody back to the backyard and again chased off the bunny next door.

Interestingly enough, the neighbor on the other side of me told me that she's now seeing 3 bunnies up under some bushes in the next block and she thinks they're living there. If the 2 became 3 then we've got a whole other set of problems to deal with, much like we have with the feral cat colony in the neighborhood that keeps multiplying. Hmmmmm . . . . I wonder what hasenpfeffer tastes like?