Jack the Rabbit

A few years ago while mowing our backyard I found a small litter of rabbits. I happened to stop to get a drink when I noticed some furry light tan things moving in a hole right in our backyard. Luckily I had stopped the lawn mower otherwise it would have been a bloody scene. I got closer to the tan patch in the ground. "Holy cow!" I remembered yelling out loud. They were three-four little bunnies that cuddled up in the little pit. It was then I remembered seeing a much larger "tan thing" that dashed across the backyard when I started mowing the lawn. Quite sure that was the mommy rabbit. I gathered them up after my wife and kids had their turn petting them. I took them to the outer part of our community, to the wooded area and set them free. The mommy rabbit didn’t come back and I didn’t see anymore rabbit after that.

About 18 months ago I noticed a rabbit was living under our deck in the backyard. The lower part of our deck isn’t covered. I didn’t think much of it but it did chew up a few of our flowers and plants. It was way too fast for me to catch and we didn’t have anything to trap it with. "Jack the Rabbit" was a nuisance for sure. We would see it from time to time when we were out gardening or mowing the lawn. It was slightly large than the size of a softball but was growing larger and larger.

After the winter we had planted quite a few fruit and vegetable plants in our side yard. Our uninvited guest – Jack had made himself (or herself?) comfortable and begun feasting in my wife’s veggie patch. Of course that didn’t sit well with the Mrs. I got a roll of mesh wires and made a make-shift trap. I place some yummy greens in the trap and set it out, hoping to catch the terror in our veggie garden. One day passed, two days…four days had passed without any success. One afternoon our cat Crystal was going berserk, I looked out and right in the grass was Jack, chewing on a plant. "Holy shxt! no wonder the trap didn’t work!!" Jack was nearly the same size as our cat and stood quite tall with the ears up.

A coworkers of my wife’s lives out in the country and gets frequent visit from the critters. She told my wife that we could borrow their critter trap. When my wife brought it home I thought it was too big. The trap was intended for raccoons, much larger animals than the rabbit we were trying to catch. "Fine then, I’ll set it up in the backyard and see what happens." I thought to myself. I placed a few green leaves in the trap, set the trap door and laid it out. I had placed bricks and boarded up the underside of our deck, with only one opening for the rabbit to come out – straight to the trap. A couple of days had passed, no sign of Jack. Perhaps Jack had moved out? There were no indications of the rabbit in the veggie patch.

Another two days had passed, I got a call from my wife one morning. The trap I had set out a few days ago finally caught the culprit that had been chomping on my wife’s veggie garden. "Jack the Rabbit" was finally captured. I’m guessing it was one of the rabbit siblings I had set free two years ago. Somehow, this one had found its way back. Well, there isn’t any way to prove that, since they all look alike!

The metal door and the tension spring on the trap caused slight injury
to Jack’s head but nothing too severe. When I got home it was moving about in the trap cage. I let my boys look at it and even took it inside for my curious cat to have a good look. My cat had seen it from inside the house. She meowed as if she were telling us "Hey, the bunny is here!".

I placed Jack in the back of my car and drove to the wooded area in
the back of our community and set it free. I have placed patio blocks
under our deck and there is no way that the rabbit could get under it
now.

My younger son getting a closer look Crystal (our cat) checking out Jack

I didn’t have a ruler or tape measure so I used my sandal to show the approximate size of Jack. It’s slightly longer than my sandal, I’d say it’s about 13" – 14" long, from nose to tail. A pretty large rabbit I’d say!

original post date: October 3, 2009