M.I.A.

PETER RABBIT

LAST SEEN 11/17/13

 

 

HAVE YOU SEEN THIS BUNNY?

 

 

Sunday night I gave him a carrot treat and he hopped away dragging it behind him. Monday I didn't see him all day, but I didn't think anything of it until the afternoon when I noticed there was a lot of food still in his dish. Usually by afternoon it's nearly gone. When I went out at dusk to get his bowl, not only did I notice there was a lot of food left, but it hadn't even been touched since I put it in the bowl that morning. I looked the yard over and no sign of him. I decided I'd wait until morning light to do a thorough check.

 

At first light I checked again and this time went to all his normal hiding places and lounging spots. Under boards, bushes, trees, and porches, on decks and behind sheds. No sign of him. I left the camellia bush for last and with much trepidation, parted the branches and looked into his sawdust-covered "cave" (it's really a large plant pot on its side with a rain-proof covering over it). I though for sure I'd find him curled up as if sleeping, but dead.

 

When I didn't find him dead, I was a little relieved until I started imagining the worst. Either an owl or eagle swooped down in the night and took him away to eat him alive (the worse case scenario), or in mid-flight dropped him (oh, I worry about this as he could be out wandering in the wild with injuries), or he's dead under the garden shed. I went for a walk down by the river which is next to the field outside my yard...just in case. No sign of him.

The garden shed is his other nighttime sleeping place. If he's dead under the garden shed I'll never see his body unless I demolish the building, but I might be able to smell it in a few days. If indeed he is dead, I do hope I get some kind of proof or I'll be tormented for a long time. He has disappeared before, but not for this long and never without eating on the sly. I haven't started crying yet. I keep looking outside just in case he appears, hopping cheerfully across the yard and doing a binky or two.

 

The garden feels very quiet...sigh.