Go Home, Violet!

A month or so ago, Jack, Miriam and I were eating lunch. Out of the blue, Miriam said to us,"If we had a dog, we wouldn't have to sweep the floor after lunch." I told her that I didn't mind sweeping the floor, because if we had a dog there would be other messes we would have to clean up. And so ensued a conversation about getting a pet. Next Miriam suggested a cat. I don't remember our argument against the cat, but she told us cats were okay because Katelyn has a cat. So Jack told her there were lots of birds that flew into our yard and landed on the fence. They could be her pet. She could even name them. Miriam told him that wouldn't work because the birds fly away. Well, what about the bunny? We have a bunny that hops through our yard, and seems to like living under our bush. No, Miriam informed us, that bunny lives in Katelyn's drain in her front yard. It is Katelyn's bunny. Katelyn named it Violet. Well, we finally convinced her that a pet rock would be great. She could pick out a rock and paint it after rest time. She forgot about it by the time rest time was over, so we are still a petless family.

Unfortunately, Violet doesn't understand what it means to belong to someone. She has been spotted many times in our front and back yards. She is an innocent-looking bunny, though, so I am sure she is not meaning to trespass. Maybe she just doesn't understand the purpose of the fence is to keep her out.

When we got home from our vacation, we noticed that we had a visitor in our garden. This visitor (whom I'm sure was Violet) dug a nice little cave in the side of our cucumber mound. Luckily Violet didn't do any damage to the cucumber plant. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for the pumpkin plant. Do you notice the nice big pumpkin plant leaves that have come up? No? Well, Violet did. And she must have thought they were quite tasty. She didn't leave anything except the stems of the poor plants!

Now, I don't believe in going to extreme measures to keep animals out of the garden. We did displace them not too long ago from a nice field that was their home. Now it is a nice neighborhood! However, we have to draw the line somewhere! Jack suggested buying a BB gun to protect the garden. I laughed at his joke. (Even if he didn't realize it was a joke, I did!) We are planning on looking around the fence to see where the rocks are low enough to allow a bunny to squeeze in. And we discussed setting up some surveillance cameras... Maybe Violet can be reasoned with. Does she know there are some nice rose bushes in her own yard? Roses are an edible plant, you know...