“The Wabbits”

By kiki

You've; heard of cowboys deep in the heart of Texas, and other parts of the West, that have herds of cattle, right? Well, “we” and I say we instead of “I” because they were not mine, had a herd of rabbits. But, then again, maybe I should say “they” had.

It all started with my granddaughter, Sierra, who wanted a bunny for Easter when she was about 4 years old. Her daddy, James, who is our son, asked if we could keep the bunny at our house. I said yes, we could keep him or her in a cage, I told James.

Easter came, and Sierra got her bunny.

A few months passed, and the bunny, now a rabbit, got too big for the cage, so I turned him/her loose in the backyard. Things were going okay; he or she was not doing any damage to the lawn. Then one day, as James was out with Sierra and his older daughter Keana I got a phone call from him: “Pops, Sierra wants to talk to you” I said okay and got on the phone with Sierra; I said hi to her and in return all I could hear was baby talk from her, after a minute or so of not understanding what Sierra was saying I said “okay Mija” Half an hour or so later James and the girls return home with a bunny.

I want ape: “James, what are you doing with another bunny!?”

“Pops, you said it was okay if we bought another bunny home,” James said to me.

“When did I say that!?

“When you talked to Sierra, you told her, "okay.”

“James, I said okay to Sierra; because I didn’t understand what she was saying, and I always say “okay” when I don’t understand what somebody is saying to me, which is often.”

Okay, so now we had two rabbits running in the backyard. Things were going fine for four-five months, and then one morning, I looked out from our bedroom door, which faced the backyard, and I saw two little heads peeking out from a hole. Damn! Now we have more bunnies. Soon we had a herd of rabbits that had me buying bags of rabbit feed.

I fed the rabbits for about a year, and they, in turn, dug holes and ruin my lawn.

One day my neighbor (to remain anonymous) came knocking on my front door.

“Frank, your rabbits, are in my backyard, and they are eating my lawn and plants.”

“The rabbits had dug holes in our neighbor's backyard, and we need to get rid of them,” I told James.

We didn’t have a “rabbit drive,” but we did have a “round-up,” we rounded up all the rabbits but one that we couldn’t get. So we rounded up the twenty or so rabbits we took to the local hills, where we turned them loose.

We still have one "wabbit," the one we couldn’t get, named him “Smokey.” Every now and then, I try to get him, but when I do, I feel like Elmer Fudd, minus the shotgun, trying to get Bugs Bunny.

Now we need to repair the lawn. Hopefully, it’ll be done by spring.