Shhh... I'm hunting wabbits!

For the past two years, Phil has been trying to catch a rabbit in our yard. He's tried cornering, he's tried live traps, he's tried to outrun them... but no success. That is, until last Friday. Here is his analysis of what took place:

Kristen was actually out back cleaning up, and we had a fake plastic pine tree that was laying on the grass drying out. She picked it up and carried it onto the deck to put in a big tub, and the rabbit dropped out when she was carrying it! It freaked out and scurried behind one of our planters to hide. Kristen came in and got me, at which point I paused to quickly evaluate my options.

The available tools included the following: large plastic tub, sticks on deck, jacket, children's toys, sandbox pails and shovels. I did not think that I had time to risk going to the garage or shed. I would have been crestfallen if it had gotten away. The initial plan was for Kristen to go to open side of the planter (the side which is open off of the deck), cover up the opening with my jacket so that it couldn't jump down into the grass, and force it to jump back onto the deck where I waited on the other side with a bucket and a shovel (to put over the top of the bucket once I had him).

Kristen proved unequal to the task, however, as she freaked out every time that she got near the planter. Plan B was for her to simply make a racket on the deck behind the rabbit, scaring it into jumping out forwards towards the grass and sweet, sweet freedom. It had no way of knowing, however, that I would be lurking below it with the big plastic tub, ready to capture it as it leapt for said freedom. We entered execution phase, and everything went as planned. Unfortunately for me, the rabbit actually bounced off of the tub and landed on the grass. At this point I freaked out, because I thought we were foiled again. Luckily for me, the rabbit was disoriented by his ordeal, giving me an opening. I lunged for him hoping that I would be able to make him run back towards the house, where I could eventually corner him, as opposed to away into the yard and through our fence.

A higher being was watching over me this afternoon, because at this point the idiot rabbit did the only thing in the world that would have resulted in him getting caught. He made a bee-line for the lattice work between the ground and our deck, hoping to hop through and reach the safety of the area under the deck. In his haste, however, he ran right into Will's strategically placed soccer goal and got slowed down by the netting. While he struggled to get free I ran towards him and was able to grab him and render any further struggle moot.

He then spent about an hour in the giant tub while I worked in the basement and felt good about myself. I tried to feed him carrots and lettuce, but he was uninterested.

*** Note: No rabbits were injured as a result of this escapade. The rabbit was successfully released. 

These were used in failed attempts...
Not Pictured: A box propped up by a stick with a string