Wednesday, July 24, 2013

The Rabbit Invasion

At one time our county was known for its plentiful rabbit population.  Over time, the rabbits became less numerous but it seems that we're about to regain the distinction of being the Rabbit Capital of North Carolina once again.

My other half and I spent the morning chasing this half-grown bunny from our back yard.  We have no idea of how they're getting in as the yard is completely fenced with a welded wire that has only 2 x 3 inch gaps between the wire.  But we're seeing more of them back there than we ever have.  When we found that even the larger rabbits could go through those tiny spaces, my husband put up some wire with a mesh of about half an inch along the bottom of the existing fence and they're still getting in!  It appears that we're going to have to fence the yard with screen wire!

It's not that we don't like rabbits.  We do, and we have no problem with them being just about anywhere else on our farm. But our garden is in the back yard and they do cause some problems there if they happen to get in.  We've even fenced off the garden within the back yard and they're finding their way through that fence as well.

It hasn't been too many years ago that we began to see and hear coyotes relatively close to our house.  The increase in the rabbit population means that there will be an increase in the populations of coyotes, and both red and gray foxes and probably hawks and owls. 

We're pretty laid back about letting nature take care of itself and don't hunt or otherwise try to control the wildlife population.  Even though coyotes aren't native to our area, we leave them alone unless they're very close to the house.

With rabbits getting into the back yard, other wild animals could follow them and we already watch our little Maltese closely when she's outside.   Hopefully, we can figure out something to keep the rabbits out.

In the meantime, that old Shirley Temple song keeps running through my head ------"Animal crackers in my soup,  monkeys and rabbits loop the loop ---"  (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UuD0-y_cGA)

4 comments:

Unknown said...

and the lions and tigers looping the loop as well. LOl..

Jan said...

That's right - we can't leave them out, can we? lol

Sue Clinker said...

Perhaps you need to get CiCi a friend - perhaps a little terrier type?

Jan said...

LOL, Sue, we thought of that but C really doesn't respond to other dogs. A friend brought a little puppy over and C was thoroughly disgusted with it and with us for letting it come over!