hoppy_is_a_rabbit raze i didn't know she was a female rabbit until stephanie said she saw her with her two babies. she started showing up around here years ago, when she was a baby herself. there'd be nothing for a year or more, and then one day she'd be foraging in the plants on stephanie's front lawn before it was stephanie's house, or i would catch her running across the street. then stephanie tore out all the trees that stood for years before she lived here and the cover was gone. now hoppy seems to favour our backyard. she's always in one specific spot, in the left corner, out in the open. sometimes she'll just be there for a while in the morning. sometimes she'll stay for five or six hours. a few days ago she let me get close enough to take a picture of her. she has enormous brown eyes that seem to see everything. i don't know how she gets in and out of the tiny spaces between the vertical bars of the fence. she would probably choose a more elegant name for herself, but she hasn't corrected me yet. so for now, she's hoppy, even if i rarely catch her in the act of hopping. 210625 ... raze saw her stretch out on her back the other day, looking like she was trying to get cool. can't say i blame her, given how humid it's been around here. the squirrels don't bother her and she doesn't bother the squirrels. they have an understanding. 210627 ... e_o_i Oooh, that's downright adorable. I'm jealous of the recognizable rabbitses. (There ARE rabbits here, but no one bunny in particular, and they villainously eat lettuce out of the garden I'm sadly neglecting in these last days of my Sanskrit course.) 210627 ... raze someday you'll have your very own kinda-sorta pet rabbit who adopts you and hangs out at your house! mark my words! i have to say, the cuteness is a very welcome addition to my life. i want to ask all kinds of questions ("where is your burrow? what kind of music do you listen to? do you have a rabbit book club? which leaves do you like best?"), but i don't want to seem too forward or scare her off. 210630 ... raze she chose a different spot, closer to the middle of the yard. she was crouched down real low and looking to the left. she looked ready to pounce, but she didn't move. a robin flew down and stared at her. "what are you waiting for?" he asked. because it looked to him like she was waiting for something. "you," she said. and he thought on that for a while. 210711 ... raze i miss seeing her eating and ruminating back there. she's been around, though. i guess she likes to keep moving. 210809 ... tender square i used to have a rabbit that frequented my yard who i named frederick. (one time m called him "freddie" and i was like "uh, it's frederick," correcting that nonsense.) i wrote a little song about frederick to the tune of "war pigs" and i'd sing it from the window every time he popped into view. 210809 ... kerry frederick is a good name for a rabbit. (i always liked the idea of a little yellow rabbit named karen but now the name is less appealing.) 210809 ... raze there was a dead rabbit at the end of our street about a week ago. at least it used to be a rabbit before it got flattened by a car. i didn't want to believe it was her, but i think it was. i don't see her around anymore. today i saw a rabbit in the park that i swear was one of her babies. it looked just like her, only smaller. no one has ever seen a rabbit in that park before. it ran past me twice, as fast as anything, and stopped to look at me both times. it felt like a message from a brown and white friend telling me life will always find a way somehow. and i could feel something that was empty fill up again. 210819 ... unhinged the morphic_resonance of the mama rabbit helped the baby rabbit recognize a friend 210819 ... raze snow covers the grass in the backyard now. it's almost everywhere. the one spot the sun has seen fit to melt it is in the corner she used to favour. there and only there the lawn shows through, still vibrant, still living. something tells me it isn't an accident. 211128 ... raze i almost brought an acoustic guitar out back one afternoon when summer hadn't yet given way to fall. i wanted to play some music for her. i wish i'd done that when i had the chance. i still check to see if she's there at least a few times a week, even though i know she won't be. it would feel like a betrayal if i stopped looking. 211203 ... raze hoppy's_children keep her spirit strong and give me something to hope for when i'm peering through tempered glass lenses too broad to fit my face. 220727 what's it to you? who go blather from