Rabbit, Rabbit

According to Wikipedia,  a person should say "rabbit, rabbit"  upon waking on the first day of each new month, and that person will receive good luck for the rest of the month.  I think I have enough rabbits living in my garden to forgo that ritual.  I should have enough luck for the remainder of my life. 

This is my "official" rabbit-protection-system.  It isn't fancy.  It's my art panels linked together using bungees tight enough to keep out dogs, loose enough to let in Mama Bunny, frightening enough to keep away roaming kitties.   

I have bunnies galore in my yard and every month from March until October, Mama Bunny and I disagree about the use of my yard as an incubator.  She digs holes for nests, I fill them in.  Not that I don't love bunnies, but I have 3 dogs and at a certain stage of their nesting, they squeak and smell and inevitably are dug up and killed by my furkids doing what nature has instructed they do - seek, destroy, eat if possible.

I was doing so well this year until Ernie and I went away for three days.  Mama Bunny sneaked in during our absence and sure enough, had babies under an oak tree.  I know all the signs now, and as soon as I saw the patch in the back woods, indicating she'd removed leaves and needles to line her nest, I knew she'd beaten me once again.  So I set out on a mission to find said new nest.  Mama Bunny always builds near a tree or stick that is vertical to the ground, (earlier this spring it was by the gas meter!) nearly always to the south and east, usually sloping in the event of rain and not far from her tell-tale bare spot.  She digs holes one night. The next night she lines the chosen hole with pine needles, debris and/or grass, then covers it up.  The next night she lines the hole with her own fur and recovers it all.  Usually this is when I give up, because she's ready to give birth.  This is also when its hard to find the dang nest because she's an expert at camouflage.   

See what I mean?  Want to see if you can find the nest?  

Do you see that light green leaf in the center near the tree?  (not the bright green leaves on the vine) That's on top of the center of the nest...I put it there to mark it to make sure she's coming back every day. There is a faded one nearer the tree that I put there when I found the nest. It's under a needle now, which means she's been there and moved it. If you look closely, you can see the pine needles under that form a bit of a circle. The stick is to the right of the nest.  She has openings on each side of the nest, barely perceptible.  If I remove the top layer of needles, her gray fur covering (and waterproofing) the nest could be seen and the babies will wiggle, but they are newborn and I'm not going to bother them just yet. 

Hopefully they'll make it.  When they don't, I bury them in my garden, returning energy to the earth, sending them off by acknowledging their short lives with a prayer to the Universe.  I feel somewhat responsible for these little creatures who live in my space.  They can't help that I have dogs and their Mama is seemingly oblivious.  I do my best to encourage Mama Bunny to move elsewhere.  But once they arrive, I do everything I can to help them get to a place where they can survive. Which means leaving them alone and keeping the dogs away.  Once they leave the nest, nature takes over.  And I'm on the lookout for the next rabbit, rabbit.