My city seems to have quite a few of these fluffy and fast animals and my daughter Neela couldn’t be happier. Of course, the state of neighbourhood gardens is a small price for her to pay until she has one of her own (a garden that is, not a bunny).
“Dad, can we check the bunny trap this morning?”
Bunny trap? Sounds amazing!
Neela and a girl in her class who lives next door normally find themselves at each other’s houses after school or playing outside together. We recently moved and my greatest worry was for our girls and the kind of friends they would find here. Our prayers were answered quickly with our neighbours on the one side of us.
I first met the grandpa who is a lovely gent that loves to chat, about as much as I do, so our chance driveway meetings are rarely short ones. When I grow older I would like to be a happy older man and not a grumpy one, which I think depends less on actual circumstance and more on a decision not to be grumpy about whatever life brings. If I can see the good side of something I think I probably should and Grandpa seems to have a good way of doing that.
The little girl’s dad is also a great guy but I have nothing in common with her mom because she enjoys marathons. I find watching marathons torturous and exhausting and often arrive at a destination the same length as a marathon tired out in my car. Another of my friends has a wife into running insane distances for no good reason and has stated it best (from the safety of a pub on the race route): “All the idiots run out of town, but then they come right back!?”
More could be said about actually enjoying physical exercise but we don’t want to be guilty of judging people who do…(cough cough).
Back to Neela’s bunny trap. I heard Erin’s voice from the kitchen: “You took ALL the carrots for your bunny trap? What will you eat in your lunch??”
These words of concern are met with a blank stare.
Lunch? Who cares about lunch? We’re trying to catch a bunny!!
There are two ways to walk Neela to school every morning: the main road and the walking paths behind the houses. I prefer the walking paths because they’re quieter and I can actually hear what Neela is saying. Neela prefers the road as it’s slightly shorter and gets her to where friends are ten seconds sooner, but I know the magic words. “Maybe there will be bunnies?”
Erin told me last week she’s always trying to get Neela to slow down because she has to be three steps ahead all the time and her words get muffled by winter gear. I just laughed and said “But she can’t WIN the walk if she’s not ahead!”. Being the responsible father I am, my solution is to catch up and push her (Neela, not Erin) in the snow then run and block the path with my body and pretend I don’t see her trying to get by. She always manages to do it though and goes back to thinking she’s faster than me. Whatever. I still win in the end because it’s my house and my rules and my bills and… wait….
She’s also out in front because you can’t catch rabbits anywhere else. Bunnies are little rockets and maybe seeing them a split second ahead of time will give her the edge she needs? Does she know what to do if she ever catches one? I’m pretty sure she has never thought about it in her wild attempts to love-tackle a bunny. We’ll see if it ever happens. Correction: WHEN it happens.
So a bunny trap seemed to the two girls like the next obvious attempt. They formed a sort of snow bowl in the yard next door and tossed the bait inside.
Trap? Check. Carrots? Check. Roof? Uncheck.
I’m sure they’ll be at it again this afternoon and come to the conclusion that a bunny trap also needs to be able to keep bunnies from getting out. It will be time consuming with all the little girl chatter and necessary interruptions for throwing snow at dads walking by, but
I just love that she has a friend next door.
COREY KOPE 