Beheaded Bunnies

My pre dawn walk this morning capped off an interesting few days in terms of interactions with wildlife. After the past few days of heatwave and tossing and turning all night, heading out the door in the cool morning air seemed like the best tonic.

Entered the top of the alleyway next to my place only to spot a couple of feral cats down the bottom end, furtively depositing something quickly before taking off at a great rate of knots. It looked like one had a kitten in her mouth, but not to be. Coming closer I discovered two beheaded bunnies had been abandoned in their flight from the enemy, namely me, but when I returned an hour later both bunnies were nowhere to be seen. Obviously no miracle resurrection had occurred, rather those sneaky ferals had also returned to reclaim their breakfast.

In the interests of not offending anyone, I decided to resist displaying photographic evidence of my discovery!

Faced that wonderful task of mowing the yard the other day before the temperature rose too much, only to pen this little poem soon after, following an altercation with one of my arch enemies.

He might’ve only been half grown

But a huntsman nonetheless

Had fallen from the tree I passed

And crawled across my chest.

Despatched forthwith on to the ground

As I hopped up and down and round

He barely escaped with legs intact

I nearly killed him that’s a fact.

He lay there stunned but still alive

No doubt with some relief

But he should’ve known to mess with me

Would only bring him grief.

He limped off to a hiding place

In the long dry unmown grass

Lest I chew him up and spit him out

Next time the mower passed.

And that’s not all. Monday morning found me trimming the creeper outside our office which grows like a weed at this time of year. Went to grab a strand of what I thought was a dead piece of sticky weed which grows in abundance and drives us crazy, only to take my hand away quickly as it was soft and certainly didn’t feel right.

What I’d grabbed was a handful of stick insect, not just one, but two. They weren’t joined at the hip, but they were definitely joined, and there they stayed happily for most of the day enjoying their amorous secret rendezvous in relative privacy.

And then there was the bull ant the other day, heading straight for me as I sat on a stump at the edge of the bush. I picked him up on the end of a stick and deposited him down again, and again, and again, and so we continued that ant and me for about fifteen minutes. Every time he turned right round and made a beeline for me, determined to reach his goal. Taught me a lesson in patience and persistence.

As long as beasties don’t take me by surprise I’m pretty ok, so I hope this is not a foretaste of a summer filled with moments set to test my heart rate. However, the one bright spot in this morning’s walk was to find a little patch of morning dew, a refreshing sight after such a warm night.