Hello from Anita!
On a wintry January day, dreaming of a colorful rainbow of flowers and vegetables, I visited my scraggly brown garden to cut a few remaining leaves of deep emerald kale.
I spotted a little bunny, nibbling on the weeds near a dormant peach tree. With all the nocturnal predators surrounding us, hawks, foxes, coyotes, bobcat, even my purring housecat, I wondered how a rabbit could even survive in this wild rocky country.
Our grandkids rescued a tiny 6 day old rabbit a few days back, chased inside and cornered by their three, rambunctious Blue Heelers. They took the tiny creature to a Wildlife Rescue Center. These merciful volunteers agreed to hand fed it for a few more days before it could be released into the wild again.
The wild rabbits I’ve seen around here are actually hares. Texas sized, as big as 2 feet long with powerful back legs for Olympic style sprints. Like the saloon loving poker players of the wild west, they tend to live alone, nesting in the cover of brush and rock, not in holes.
Mark Twain coined the term, the Jack Ass rabbit in his travelogue, Roughing It.
“He has the most preposterous ears that ever were mounted on any creature but a jackass. When he is sitting quiet, thinking about his sins, or is absent-minded or unapprehensive of danger, his majestic ears project above him conspicuously; but the breaking of a twig will scare him nearly to death, and then he tilts his ears back gently and starts for home.”
50 years ago, Richard Adams first published the epic adventure “Watership Down” as an extended story for his daughters, told on long car rides in the rural countryside of Southern England. “Daddy, this story is too good to waste, you ought to write it down” they encouraged.
I loved it back then and am revisiting it now.
The band of endearing , brave bunnies in this tale live in the pastoral English countyside, unlike the hard scrabble, desert Jack Rabbit. They live in a warren of interconnected holes and are very sociable.
Their adventures are nothing like the Peter Cottontail you may remember from nursery rhymes, as they are faced with terrifying danger that forces them to leave their comfortable holes and venture into unknown territory.
Big brother, Hazel convinced by little Fiver’s prophetic vision, gathers up as many rabbits as will listen, and flee impending disaster, hopping into even more perilous situations.
“Watership Down has been described as an allegory, with the labours of Hazel, Fiver, Bigwig, and Silver "mirroring the timeless struggles between tyranny and freedom, reason and blind emotion, and the individual and the corporate state.” Wikipedia.
Slowing down and delighting in even the smallest creatures is one of the rewards of living the country life.
"3When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
4what is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him?
5You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor." (Psalm 8:3-5)
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Rabbits remind me of childhood and innocence and gentleness. Watership Down's characters, Winnie the Pooh's friend, Rabbit, and Alice in Wonderland's White Rabbit and March Hare remind us that there is more to rabbits than meets the eye. New Hampshire snowshoe hares are masters of camouflage in their white winter coats, provided it stays cold enough to trigger this seasonal adaptation. Anita, the way you wrote about Watership Down reminded me of the author Ayn Rand and her subject theme on freedom and individuality versus the social good of the people managed through a communist ideology. I must read Watership Down!
I look forward to each Country Chronicles post because of the anticipation of having no clue what mystery key awaits, unlocking my inner treasure chest of reminiscences and childlike wonder!
I loved Watership Down and Peter Cottontail too. If I was able to have blackberries and cream for dinner (or breakfast as I do), I'd be good as gold! However, I can't think of one kiddie lit book I read as an education student that weren't far and above the rest!