MY ANIMAL DAY

On two occasions I went out the front door, only to see a squirrel, mostly tail along the cement walkway, scurrying away.

I am trying to decide which, the squirrels or the rabbits, are most destructive to my garden. But I will give the prize to rabbits. Squirrels eat what’s on the surface, and, we hope, mostly what is plainly visible to the eye. I’ve seen a squirrel sitting upright, hands to mouth, eating a flower just the way a human would. Rabbits are completely different, burrowing under the earth and eating the roots of edible plants.

I struggled to establish my squash plants and, rabbits having decimated two early starts, I was down to one incredible zucchini squash. It grew to be the hallelujah chorus of zucchini plants, a thing of glory. Two days ago I went outside only to see these unbelievably thriving leaves all wilting. Only today after cutting away dead leaves did I see the mound of earth from rabbit burrowing entangled with the base of the plant. Similar things have happened with my cantaloupes.

Rabbits appear to be drugged, standing still when a normal prey animal should run away, and definitely not taking no for an answer. The concept of it being my garden and not rabbits’ garden is surely not computing.

The peculiar thing is that squirrels eat the fruit of the very plants of which the rabbits eat the roots, therefore destroying the fruits. You'd think that critters would at least cooperate among themselves.