Wet hare
Uncle B was out watering in the garden just now and called out that there was “an animal of some kind” in the cold frame. Animals of some kind are my department.
Turns out, he thoroughly watered a healthy bunny which was crouching under the plants trying to be very still and invisible. Fortunately, no cats were around, so he managed to escape with a cracking story to tell.
My first attempt to find a picture of a wet bunny took me to this article from the Dodo informing me that bathing bunnies is unnecessary, cruel and might even kill them. Okay, then.
My second attempt turned up the picture at right, the title of which was wettlauf-des-igels-und-des-hasen.
The “wet” in “wettlauf” did it. It’s two people in 1864 dressed up for a fairytale ball, representing Grimm’s The Race Between the Hedgehog and the Hare.
If you don’t know this one (I didn’t), hare challenges hedgehog to a footrace. Hare bounds off, hedgehog takes a few steps and vanishes into the grass.
At the end of the row, Mrs Hedgehog pops up and says “I’m already here!” As she looks exactly like Mr Hedgehog, the hare thought he’d been beaten. Mystified, he demanded a rematch. So they did the same thing in reverse. This happened over and over until the hare fell over dead.
Sweet dreams, children!
Posted: July 29th, 2021 under history, personal.
Comments: 7
Comments
Comment from Cantharkmycry
Time: July 29, 2021, 9:48 pm
Speaking of looking sadly around for a “like” button. . .
And, y’know–maybe if the hare didn’t keep challenging people because he KNEW he could beat them, he might sometimes have had the chance to actually win. Too bad he apparently never figured out he was challenging them to a game of wits. . .where they knew they could beat him!
Comment from Cantharkmycry
Time: July 29, 2021, 9:57 pm
I went and looked at the Dodo article and, well, hm. Aren’t rabbits–well, a lot of them anyway–wild animals? Who live, you know, outdoors. In Europe and North America, and Russia, and places like that where it, you know, rains a lot?
Just sayin’
Comment from Deborah HH
Time: July 29, 2021, 10:36 pm
@Cantharkmycry: I used to live beside a lake in Galveston county where instead of a back fence, I had a wooden bulkhead. There were all kinds of ducks, geese, and swans on the lake, and when it rained, they would hop out of the lake and take shelter under the big weeping willows in my yard. Leading me to conclude: no one likes rain in their face.
Comment from Mark Matis
Time: July 30, 2021, 12:11 am
Was it really the rain that bothered them, Deborah HH, or instead the lightning that could barbecue them???
Comment from durnedyankee
Time: July 30, 2021, 11:26 am
We have bun living in the ferns near the porch – or resting, or whatevs, who doesn’t much like it when I water with the hose.
Also given Texas toad choking downpours it’s always amazed me that bunnies, who dig little fur lined fox holes here for their young, survive to become adult bunnies and don’t drown in the first good rain.
I’m going with Deborah HH on this – no one likes rain (or sprinkler water) in their face.
Comment from Mrs. Peel
Time: July 30, 2021, 3:47 pm
We have a few bunnies that come to our backyard to munch on clover. One of them is missing a big chunk of his leg. We saw him not long after the injury occurred and tried to trap him so we could take him to a vet – the leg was just dangling, and we figured a clean amputation would give him a better chance – but to no avail. That was months ago, and we didn’t see him for quite a while, so we figured he got caught by a coyote or dog (he was a little big for a cat or a hawk to tackle. Maybe an owl. Some of the owls around here are big), but he showed up again a couple weeks ago, with most of the injured leg now gone. My husband is calling him Tripod, while I’m going with the classics – Hazel-rah.
Comment from BJM
Time: July 31, 2021, 5:52 pm
We got no cute widdle bunnies, just whopping big, black-tailed jackrabbits…they’re hellbent bent on a suicide dash across the road when they hear a vehicle approaching.
Write a comment
Beware: more than one link in a comment is apt to earn you a trip to the spam filter, where you will remain -- cold, frightened and alone -- until I remember to clean the trap. But, hey, without Akismet, we'd be up to our asses in...well, ass porn, mostly.<< carry me back to ol' virginny