Just before he left Campbell River, "Brian Brett, this year's Writer in Residence" forewarned me to watch out for more rabbits around the Haig-Brown property. It seems he spotted them in broad daylight doing what rabbits do best - making more rabbits. Still being somewhat new to country living I didn't think too much about the consequences, other than "won't their babies be cute."
Then later this spring, my neighbor who regularly tours the trails next door with his dog Lady, was out enjoying a sunny day. I was working in the vegetable garden when I heard a ruckus and found him ordering Lady to heel. It seems Lady found a littler of baby bunnies stashed off the trail and by the time I got there had killed one.
I looked back and saw my dog Charlie was preoccupied with something - it was a little teeny bunny. Charlie's head was tilted to the side, his ears were up and I suppose he was confussed - all he was interested in doing was sniffing its rear end! The poor bunny was trembling, I dragged Charlie away and went back to Lady and the stash to see if there were any left. I know at least two got away but most definitely one did not.
I took some spinach over to where the stash was and thought at least when the parents come back they'll find some food. I wasn't sure what was going to happen to the little ones running around now parentless, potentially helpless.
However, since this incident I've become aware of the situation in Kelowna where the rabbit population has grown to an epic sized proportion. The city of Kelowna has allocated $54,000 to combat the bunnies. I've learnt that female rabbits give birth to as many as seven babies every...thirty-one days. Apparently people dropping off their unwanted domestic rabbits into the wild rather than the SPCA has made the problem worse. With this being said, I suppose I should have offered Lady the spinach it seems she has done us all a favor in reducing our potential rabbit population by one.
