Rusty the bunny

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 after holding them that they flick their feet  as they hop away? This means, in very strong language, that they are upset with you. You might see it at other times when your rabbit is upset with you too, like after you trim their nails. And it is often followed by your rabbit giving you the cold shoulder and completely ignoring you for a while.

Rusty has not returned to the lawn, and we had not seen Rusty for over a week, until a few days ago.

Recently

Rusty was with two young bunnies. They were in our driveway. At one point, Rusty chased them through our neighbor's fence onto the neighbor's lawn. Was Rusty telling its children to stay away from us?

Interspecies communication

I did not intend to tell Rusty to never return to our lawn. How do you communicate with bunnies? Body language. But how do you fix a miscommunication? I have not figured that out.