Fierce Bunny

I feel a little like I’m cheating on Travel Bunny with this, but this weekend I met Fierce Bunny. And he is TOO. CUTE. FOR. WORDS.

Unless the word is “squeee!”

Here’s the story of Fierce Bunny:

we were visiting our friend’s farm and they mentioned a rabbit had built a nest in their flower & herb garden for a litter of kits.  We oohed, aahed, and tried to catch a glimpse of the bunny kits.  Then proceeded to comment that the garden was doomed, and suggesting all the horrible things than carnivores who cook suggest.

The big rains came and after they stopped I went out to get some coriander from the garden only to find a drenched bunny nibbling on a marigold leaf. Oh, god it was CUTE.  Yes, all caps worthy cute.

I proceeded to sit down with my camera in the middle of the soaked garden and photograph the little guy while he nibbled.  He was a little nervous, but after not too long figured his lunch was more important than some weird human with a camera.  But he kept a close eye on me.  Fiercely watching me as he gorbied down his lunch.  This photo is why he got named Fierce Bunny.

Once he was done, he ran around the outside edge of the garden and must have tripped because the next thing I heard was a friend exclaim that he had fallen, was on his back and was struggling to flip back over.

Since 2 of his litter-mates had already died mysteriously, and Rabbits have a very low tolerance for stress  (as some of you may remember from the Great Bunny Fiasco of ’04). We were VERY concerned and I rushed over and picked him up to see if he was spasming or something else nasty. But he seemed okay, his heart wasn’t racing, he was just very very very wet.

So I held him close, just to warm him up and dry him off.  Someone might have used the word “snuggled” but I was just making sure he was okay. Honestly! It was all professional.

He stayed quiet for about 4-5 minutes, and then he WANTED DOWN. Or more accurately, up. He started crawling up my shoulder and then down onto my back, exploring and trying to get back to the garden.

So I walked him over to the nest and he scrambled in with his siblings.

The next day I went out for a visit to make sure all was okay. There he was  munching on the marigolds…

guarding his siblings against predators (and cameras, now he’s all worldly)…

and hiding in the rhubarb…

Looking extra cute now he was all dry.

Still fierce, but just that much more adorable.  But even he thought it was gag-worthy.

Warning: with all this cute, it’s possible Fierce Bunny will be recruited for the League of Shadow Bunnies.

To indoctrinate yourself from the possible use of his cute for evil, you should watch this slideshow:

Fierce Bunny

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