Another Bunny Tale

Henry

As my loyal readers know, there is no love lost between me and rabbits.  I have been hounded by them for years, especially by Henry who has been known to take up residence in my family's vegetable garden where he gnaws on the pepper plants.  Now, Henry hasn't made an appearance as of yet this year, and while most would consider this a good thing, I do not.  You see, without the constant concern and anxiety associated with the idea that a stupid little fluffy brown bunny with a white tail might wander into my yard, I've lost my touch.  And now a new stupid little fluffy brown bunny with a white tail is menacing me, and his name is Herbert.

Herbert

Herbert lives out east.  For weeks now he's been sitting outside the fence grazing on the clover in the front yard.  While I don't particularly like the idea of having a bunny anywhere on my property, I understand that a bunny needs to eat and, so long as he stays on his side of the fence (and completely out of sight), I've decided that we should be able to get along.  I call it our "Good Fences Make Good Neighbors" Policy (didn't know I was literary did you?).  But this last weekend Herbert broke our "GFMGN" policy; he ventured inside the gate.

It was a beautiful day out east and Pa and I were playing outside with my squeaker bone.  The way our game works is Pa throws the bone as far as he can, I run after it (trying to avoid trees) and grab hold of it, then I plop down in the grass and wait for Pa to come and try to get the toy away from me.  Now, early on in the game, when Pa gets to within a few feet of me, I quickly jump up and scurry off with the toy in an attempt to prevent Pa from throwing it again (which leads to a rousing game of keep away).  After chasing after the thrown squeaker toy a few times (Pa always manages to wrench the toy away from me and throw it across the yard), I move onto the second (and far less strenuous) phase of keep away which includes clenching the toy firmly in my teeth, rolling on my back, and trying to distract Pa with the offer of a belly rub.

Anyway, Pa had just wrenched the toy away from me and, from the back corner of the yard, threw the squeaker bone toward the front gate.  As is customary, I took off after it, but this time Pa also started running toward the toy and he was yelling something at the same time.

Being the superior runner (sorry Pa), I got to the squeaker bone first, but when I grabbed the toy, plopped down in the grass, and looked toward Pa, I noticed that he was still running toward me while screaming that something should "run!"  I looked around to see if I could figure out what was bothering Pa, but saw nothing but cool green grass and purplish clover.  Then, all of a sudden, I noticed a pair of bunny years pop up from within the grass.  Herbert, trying to remain unnoticed in the grass, had given away his location by twitching his ears.

I jumped up and ran toward Herbert who also jumped up and ran toward the chain linked fence that runs between my yard and the yard next door.  Trapped by the fence, Herbert turned, screeched, and then did something very strange.  He ran straight at me and right through my front legs.  When I turned around, he was gone.  It was magic!

Sister has shown me this trick before; she can make my toys magically disappear.  One second we're playing with a plush toy such as Nuclear Bunny or Denny the Dinosaur and suddenly, after passing the toy through my front legs, the toy disappears (Sister later pulls it out from behind her back).  Now, I don't know how she does it, but I guess Herbert knows the trick too.  My one concern is:  When Sister does the trick the toy reappears behind her back, but, since Sister wasn't around this time, where did Herbert end up?

Hopefully, he's on the other side of the fence (and completely out of sight).