After the Storm

Yesterday, after the storm, everything was calm again. The birds came out and started chirping, the flowers opened up, and even the rabbits seemed to find it a very good time to go silflay.

More on the rabbits later. Bow wanted to go out and see what devastation the terrible lightning and thunder might have wrought out of doors, and he asked to go outside. He was surprised to see how calm and beautiful it was outside.

There were more storms to come, and Brownie seemed to think that not all danger had passed, but for the time being, Bow was content and perhaps a little bored. He settled down on the rim of the bench, prepared for a light outdoor nap.

After dinner, when Bow had been put to sleep for the night, I went out to see what I could see. Flowers were beginning to open in my front yard.

Walking around the house, behind the giant satellite dish, I spotted a rabbit. I tried to film this first encounter with a rabbit, but, quite frankly, my cellphone camera was not really up for it. The rabbit that I could clearly see, standing stock still and hoping I would miss it, looked like a tiny dot on the cellphone screen. When I tried to magnify the image, everything got all blurry. However, you can see the little cottontail rear end when it finally realized that yes, I had spotted it after all.

Did you see the rabbit? Did you see it run into the woods? Did you see the damage on those daffodils?

Later, I went to the forsythia bush, thinking about the rabbit I had seen there a few days ago. I wasn't really expecting to see a rabbit this time.

I walked all around the forsythia bush and saw nothing. Then suddenly a rabbit bolted right in front of my feet and ran off into the woods. And, no, I didn't get a picture. By the time it came out, I was convinced there was no rabbit there.

So that makes two rabbits I saw yesterday, after the storm. And no, I was not hunting them with anything but a camera. I am glad I have wild rabbits on my land, and I would not shoot one, unless I actually meant to eat it.

But, despite the fact that I have read and enjoyed Watership Down, I do think it's okay for humans to eat rabbits. And despite Bambi,  I think it is fine to eat venison. Some people think that the moment we realize other animals have thoughts and feelings much like our own, that is the moment we have to give up eating them. But that's not what I think. I think that we don't have to feel superior in a false way, or utterly different from other animals, in order to participate in the circle of life, sometimes as predator and sometimes as prey. That's why I pointed out on Facebook, after someone posted a meme about an Easter bunny being a ten year commitment, that some people raise rabbits for meat. You should have seen the indignation of certain people at that comment!

Real enlightenment is not buying your food at the supermarket and feeling superior to those who raise their own food. I wouldn't expect that rabbit I saw to stop eating daffodils just because I regard those flowers as a decorative and a non-food plant. Why should the rabbit expect others to refrain from eating it, just because some people think of rabbits as pets?

Meanwhile, for the time being, the rabbits on my property are safe, because I'm still buying my meat at the supermarket. But I do not think that makes me morally superior to people who eat rabbits.

By late afternoon we had no internet service, so last night I contented myself by reading about the September 1818 hurricane that devastated Galveston Island. Then this morning, the front yard looked like this.

We may be in for a few mores storms, but for the time being, everything is calm and beautiful.