The Bunnies We Know

Over a period of days, Melissa noticed that one rabbit had a distictive rust-colored path of fur around the neck, and named it Rusty. Going back through her pictures, she found that Rusty was a baby in May, an adult in July.  At first, we thought Rusty was male, based on no information. But we noticed that Rusty was always with one or two younger bunnies, meaning that Rusty might be female.  Rusty came to trust Melissa and was patient with long periods of flash photography. Rusty would lie down and rest near her. Rusty used to rest in the daytime in the shade around our home. Until one day But one day I went to water the lawn and had to ask Rusty to stay away from the sprinkler. The hose frightened Rusty when it was moving, but not when it was still. Rusty jumped over the hose and ran away. The next day The next time that I saw Rusty, s/he ran away, possibly flicking the back of his/her legs at me (see bunny lady ):  Have you ever noticed when you put your rabbit down aft...

 This summer rabbits have appeared on lawns across the Eastern United States. For us, the rabbits have been a message that life continues in times of trouble.  Melissa first identified Rusty by (his or her) reddish brown collar of fur around the neck. Bunnies appear in the morning and evening, eating grass and flowers.  They are alert but not frightened of humans -- they keep their distance from any dogs being walked, even when the dogs don't notice them. Bunnies don't speak. In order to learn about their body language, we have relied on a guide from The Bunny Lady . We were delighted to learn that when a bunny trusts you, it will lie down and rest. She said that the rabbit is resting -- not distressed -- when it does this.  We particularly enjoy watching bunnies interact with each other. Mostly we see them chase each other. This is either play or domination behavior -- we don't know. These days, Rusty is usually accompanied by a junior rabbit (does that mean that Ru...