I’m at war. My enemies are the
neighborhood rabbits. You heard me right. I’m at war with bunnies.
Please don't judge me too harshly. I have good cause to declare war on the critters.
These hares are heinous. Please see Exhibits A and B.
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| Exhibit A |
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| Exhibit B |
First, they gain entry to the friendly confines of my yard
by chewing enormous holes in our fence, even though there is little need for
that because the gaps in the fence are already spacious and plentiful.
Then, once they’ve succeeded in breaking-and-entering, they
proceed to purloin my precious plants, biting off blooms left and right. To add
insult to injury, they are not particularly finicky eaters, so they hop around
sampling everything like Saturday morning shoppers at Costco, ravaging one
section of the garden after another.
Where is Elmer Fudd when I need him? You remember Elmer, the
hunter who was always tracking Bugs Bunny? The one who is famous for saying,
“Be vewwy vewwy quiet…I’m hunting wabbits.” Then he would laugh that crazy
laugh of his.
Someone suggested a BB gun, but I’m not much of a killer. I’d
probably cry if I actually managed to hit one of those wascally wabbits. I’ll
just have to come up with other alternatives.
The way I see it, here are my options:
1) Get a dog. This will be vetoed by My Better Half
(MBH).
2) Live traps. Problem is, with my luck I’ll catch
the neighbor’s cat, or worse, a skunk. Plus, the bunnies are rather prolific,
so I think it would be futile to try to catch them all. Besides, what am I
gonna do if I catch one, load it up and release it in someone else’s
neighborhood? That doesn’t seem very “Minnesota Nice”.
3) Rabbit Repellent. I’ve heard you can make a spray
containing cayenne pepper or other substances that will deter them, but you
have to keep reapplying it. I’m too lazy for this option.
4) Put up two-foot high poultry wire fencing along
the bottom of our existing cedar fence all around the perimeter of the yard.
This is going to be expensive, but probably the most effective.*
5) Learn to co-exist. Plant a patch of alfalfa or
clover (their favorite foods) and pray they eat just that and not everything
else as well. I’m not sure this is a good idea. It sounds like inviting
trouble, and it feels like I’m just giving in.
I’ve read a score of articles on the subject of rabbits in
the garden. These articles discuss what makes them such voracious eaters, and some even suggest that a gardener needs to “know thy enemy”, and try to "think like a rabbit". One article gave an obvious answer
for the bunny behavior. Basically, a rabbit's modus operandi in the spring is – you
guessed it – to make babies! Lots of them. Incredibly, Mr. and Mrs. Roger Rabbit
can have 18 babies per year. Wowzers! That explains their appetites, I guess. Long-story-short,
their goal is advancement of their family. Not all that
mysterious. They're not really trying to annoy me, they're just trying to survive.
In the same way, sometimes we face adversarial people in our
lives, who threaten our peaceful existence. There are people who we feel we are “at war with” from time to time. They may not be our enemies per se, but
maybe they just make our lives difficult. Like the rabbits eating their way
through our garden flowers and vegetables, these people steal our joy, thwart
our plans, undermine our work, or maybe just get under our skin.
Going after them like Elmer Fudd on a mission to destroy
Bugs Bunny is not okay. We might be tempted to try to remove them and relocate
them so we don’t have to deal with them. Or we may try to repel them by ignoring
them, or acting like a jerk so they stay out of our way. We may even try to put
up walls to push them out of our lives or keep them at a distance.
None of these strategies is really advisable when it comes
to personal relationships. Lucky for us, the Bible gives great advice on how to
treat our “enemies”. There are a variety of places that address the subject but
the clearest one is found in Luke 6:27-28 where it says “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you." That's not an easy task, but maybe if we try to understand where the other person is coming from,
we can find a way to peacefully co-exist, whether it’s in the workplace, the
family, the classroom, the neighborhood, or the church. Who knows? If we work
at it, maybe we can actually manage to love our enemies.
*PS: Regarding the rabbits, I decided on Option #4. Here is
MBH, patiently attaching the bunny-proof fencing to the wooden fence.
😊
