I’m having a mental war with a rabbit. So far the little devil has eaten two different plantings of broccoli and cabbage to the nub, feasted on innumerous strawberries, sacked my lettuce crop, and chomped the carrot greens to the ground. It ‘s not a big rabbit, mind you. In fact, it is really just a bunny—still small enough to fit through the openings in our chain link fence. Every time I chase it, yelling “Get out of here you little bunny!” it simply scuttles through the fence and off into the woods, mocking me with that little fluffy white tail. I can’t wait until the dang thing is too big to fit through the chain link fence—I only hope he has his growth spurt while on the outside of the fence.
Last week, I thought I had discovered where it was sneaking into the vegetable garden through the surrounding wooden stockade fence, but I packed the entrance hole with wire fencing and the rascal is still getting in. A friend’s advice was to surround the garden with mothballs as an odor deterrent. Really?? Would that horrid smell not deter every living thing around, including humans? Plus, they’re toxic. I sure don’t like the rabbit, but I do like my kid and my dog and don’t want them accidentally chowing down on something as toxic as a mothball. I also considered sprinkling a granular rabbit deterrent, but I’d probably have to cover the whole yard and, again, have you smelled that stuff? Yuck.
Well, and then there’s the fact that he’s kind of cute. Perhaps that’s why I haven’t gotten around to setting up the Havahart trap yet. Plus, catching rabbits is never easy (just ask Elmer Fudd), and although the Havahart trap is far more sophisticated than a box with a stick and a string, bunnies still manage to elude them quite easily. I suspect this little guy wouldn’t even be heavy enough to trip the trap. If he continues to wreak havoc, I’ll have to set it up, bait it with some cabbage, and hope for the best. I’d release him—unharmed, I swear—in the far back of our property and hope he couldn’t find his way back to the garden (hahaha). I hope it doesn’t come to that, though, because I wouldn’t want my son to see me victoriously dancing around the yard over a sweet, little trapped bunny.
