A Window Friend


While dealing with a troubling health issue, and still in the process of solution seeking, I have found a window friend this spring and summer. For several years now, rabbits have inhabited our yard, and also along a neighbor's property that borders one side of our driveway. This area is in full view of one of my bedroom windows. In the past, all the rabbits behaved as 'normal' rabbit inhabitants might, in that, they would graze in a spot, move on to another location, their heads mostly lowered to the grass, and their bodies held in an elongated manner with feet covered, ears still or twitching...but always the core of them non-revealing...intact. However, this year, we've been GIVEN a different type of rabbit. You noticed I said given...because, in all aspects, this year, a rabbit has shown up who defies all the heretofore perceptions of how a rabbit should go about his ramblings. So much so, that, John and I have named this rabbit, Buster. When foraging for a meal, he settles in a spot to munch for a while, then, as if on some silent cue, he stops eating and spreads his feet out from his body like a dog who is resting after a hard chase on a hot day. Buster will be flat to the ground and his body almost disappears into the grass, the ears sometimes will be the only give-away of his presence. And, then again, as if an invisible alarm sounds, he will pop up and resume his grazing.
Another thing that makes Buster so unique: we've spotted him, in our back yard enclosure (he eased under the wood fence), rolled up like a big fur ball, still, no ears showing, no feet showing, and for all the world, looking like a thrown fat hair ball that landed in the grass. John and I came to the conclusion that he was sleeping (I've never seen how rabbits look when asleep, so this was merely speculation on our part). While in this balled frame, he remains still, as when resting with all fours extended, and then…his inner clock brings him back to being; and he picks up his foraging with an air of seemingly uninterrupted meal time. He has caught our attention and we, now, look for him in the early mornings and late afternoons. He appears during the time when light has given over to a softness easy on the eyes, and the day's extreme heat has lifted away. I feel a gift with his presence, a glimpse into a world I had no knowledge of until he informed me. This morning Buster was in our front yard when John went out to get the paper. John spoke to him (I learned he didn't call him by name because I am really the one who named him), and Buster simply continued to munch, slanting only his eyes to note an awareness of John's presence.
In the days to come, I will be watching Buster and enjoying his antics until it is time for him to go to wherever rabbits go for the winter.
It will be spring before the rabbits show themselves again, but this time, I'll be in search of that elusive creature who has filled this season with such a delightful interlude...I'll be hoping for the likeness of this year's gift...a relative of Buster. Elizabeth