Mini Bunzini's Secret

"I think Mini Bunzini is preggers!" my husband announced with a sigh, on a day not very long ago. He said he had seen the wild bunny lying on her side under the hedge "like a big old beached whale." He thought she was acting oddly, and he suspected he knew the reason why.

On this particular day, Mini Bunzini was in the yard eating up a storm. She ate big leaf after big leaf. Was she eating for two or more? We did not know. But on the next day, our suspicions were confirmed.

On Monday, when we got home from visiting my sister in the hospital (please keep those prayers and well wishes beaming her way), my husband had his traditional late-afternoon visit with Mini Bunzini in what we think of as the "Bun Zone," the area in the yard where he and the bunnies hang out together. However, it turns out Mini-B was not alone!

My husband came back into the house speechless, shaking his head, wearing a big, goofy grin on his face. And then he told me that Mini Bunzini had brought a tiny bunny along to meet him (and so we extend a formal welcome to MICRO Bunzini). He initially thought there were two, but later said he thought it was just the one bun hopping all around.  (Update a day or two later: There ARE two micro-buns!)

So he sat in the yard in his usual chair, wearing the big white Crocs on his feet that Mini Bunzini thinks of as his "bunny feets" - yes, she likes to chin them. And out came a tiny bun to meet him, just as we dreamed it might be. (I guess we suspected that something more than dancing may have been taking place among the bunnies in the yard.) He reports that the baby bunny seemed already to respond to the sound of his voice.

This certainly explains some things, including the following: Last week, my husband went out to mow the yard. And Mini Bunzini, who usually disappears during mowings, actually stayed under the hedge at the edge of the Bun Zone for the entire time.

And when my husband approached to mow that area, Mini-B stood at the edge of it and stamped her feet at him! The message was clear: "No mowing in the Bun Zone!" And now we know why: she had one or more babies there! (Of course he obliged - that whole area has now become a no-mow bunny zone.)

So congratulations to Mini Bunzini, who is a new mom. And congrats also to my husband, who is . . . I don't know what his official title should be . . . maybe the Godfather of Wild Bunnies??? We celebrate this delightful friendship that has grown between a man and these wild creatures, and we take none of these gifts for granted.

Of course, I will be watching for any opportunity to photograph the new arrival(s) but there is no guarantee Mini-B will let me get near enough to do so. Should I succeed, I'll try to post photos here.

The song to accompany this image is The Beatles, with Do You Want to Know a Secret?