The Wild Chesney Glen

So I was out doing one more lap around the neighborhood tonight, since it's only 67 degrees out right now and just perfect to get out and exercise. I was on the back street of the neighborhood, heading back to the house, when I saw something small running down the middle of the street directly towards me. At first I thought it was a dead leaf blowing along, but as it got closer I could tell it was some type of animal. I assumed it was a rat until it got about 30 feet away from me and I could tell it was a really small rabbit.

It ran right past me about 3 feet away, then hung a right at the cul-de-sac and went about 20 more feet before it stopped, right in the middle of the pavement. I walked over to it, and it scrunched itself up really tight, including pulling its ears in. I could tell it was really young, since it was trying to hide from me instead of just tearing ass down the street like a more experienced adult would do. I put my feet around it and bent down to grab it, but I wasn't quite quick enough and as soon as my hand touched its back it shot off down the street again and ran down the side of a house.

I kept going, wondering what would make such a young rabbit panic like that and run away from the nest. A few houses later I had my answer when I saw a rather large opossum sniffing around in a yard near where I first saw the bunny. I didn't try to catch the opossum, but when it saw me it had enough sense to run away.

Earlier in the evening I caught a frog on our back deck sliding door and showed it to Jack. He thought it was really cool, but he didn't want to hold it. We've been seeing them sitting on the sliding door for several weeks now. It's getting to be like a jungle out there.