Natural selection
Aug. 5th, 2003 09:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mayhapI saw the cutest, funniest, and yet most mind-boggling thing earlier this evening, and sadly could not find my digital camera to share it with you all.
In our backyard we have a deck, and behind that we have a hill, and under the deck we have some baby rabbits this year, who have gotten rather older but are still pretty small. I was sitting on the swing on the deck with my laptop and my brother, who just got back from camp, was sitting out with me, and we were watching a baby rabbit casually nibble some grass, which one assumes was particularly tasty or tender or something, to distinguish it from all the other grass in the yard.
Then the rabbit lies down in the grass, with its front paws stretched out in front and its back legs stretched out to the side, the way rabbits do, working with the constraints of their anatomy.
Now, rabbits don't fucking do this. Seriously. We have a rabbit, and have had for a good eight years now. She has the run of the house, loves to lie upside-down in our arms with her paws in the air and her stomach exposed, lets us (mainly my brother, the rest of us don't go in much for this) hold her curled up in a ball balanced on one hand, all sorts of things. Only very recently, as in this summer, did she become so casual about lying down that she would do it next to our feet, more like a puppy, or in the vicinity, more like a cat. Normally she would only do such a thing in a safe space like her cage or right near it, under a low end table, etc.
And this is our utterly tame house rabbit. Outdoor rabbits are supposed to spring off into the treeline whenever we make any sudden moves, not lounge around while we squeal and point and go back and forth opening the squeaky atrium door looking for cameras.
My fear is that, cute and engaging as this batch of rabbits is, they are destined to be eaten soon if they go on in this way.
In our backyard we have a deck, and behind that we have a hill, and under the deck we have some baby rabbits this year, who have gotten rather older but are still pretty small. I was sitting on the swing on the deck with my laptop and my brother, who just got back from camp, was sitting out with me, and we were watching a baby rabbit casually nibble some grass, which one assumes was particularly tasty or tender or something, to distinguish it from all the other grass in the yard.
Then the rabbit lies down in the grass, with its front paws stretched out in front and its back legs stretched out to the side, the way rabbits do, working with the constraints of their anatomy.
Now, rabbits don't fucking do this. Seriously. We have a rabbit, and have had for a good eight years now. She has the run of the house, loves to lie upside-down in our arms with her paws in the air and her stomach exposed, lets us (mainly my brother, the rest of us don't go in much for this) hold her curled up in a ball balanced on one hand, all sorts of things. Only very recently, as in this summer, did she become so casual about lying down that she would do it next to our feet, more like a puppy, or in the vicinity, more like a cat. Normally she would only do such a thing in a safe space like her cage or right near it, under a low end table, etc.
And this is our utterly tame house rabbit. Outdoor rabbits are supposed to spring off into the treeline whenever we make any sudden moves, not lounge around while we squeal and point and go back and forth opening the squeaky atrium door looking for cameras.
My fear is that, cute and engaging as this batch of rabbits is, they are destined to be eaten soon if they go on in this way.
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no subject
Date: 2003-08-07 07:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-08-07 08:02 pm (UTC)One more such instance and you're banned from commenting, buddy.