Mopsy came today
I did not have visits from rabbits for 9 days. There was a lot of rain, so maybe most of them were hiding in burrows. I missed them, but one cannot live for rabbits alone! I have grandchildren to see, tasks to do, and rabbit visits are a luxury.
But today there came a rather bedraggled rabbit whom I named Mopsy. Mopsy seemed listless, but she ate the grass and sat huddled on the wet meadow. I expected she would leave when it started to rain heavily, but I saw her, a small forlorn being, almost flattened into the area under the biggest piñon tree. She was out of the rain there, so I thought she might stay. In my mind I thanked her for coming to be my friend, and most of my days are lonely. And I thought, probably Mopsy is lonely too.
Later I looked out at the meadow and she was gone.
One strange thing about Mopsy's visit is that it was simultaneous with some strutting big birds, which did not seem to bother her. If they were crows, they were not all black as crows are, but had grey rings around their collars. They walked like crows and sounded like crows, though.
Mopsy ignored the birds as if she were in a trance, not scared, She only hopped once.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Ashby comes to the meadow
Ashby is a small rabbit who is darker colored than the others who come to the Meadow. He looks like he was dipped in the ashes of the Los Conchas fire which burned our Jemez Mountains this summer. I have no evidence that he is male, but I discovered when watching the wild rabbits that I had impressions about them: some were male, some female, some were interested in their Watcher (me) and one, at the other extreme, sneered at me for even watching her, and hopped off "stage right". The smallest one must have been the offspring of a medium-sized beige rabbit, who hopped a few paces and froze (as the baby also froze) when I came to the window, waiting to see what the family should do next to stay safe, their big eyes and ears scanning the sky for hawks and other predators.
The first rabbit whom I named was Flopsy, a large beige rabbit with red tinges (roan rabbit fur?) and long reddish thin ears. There had been no rabbits in the Meadow for five months when Flopsy showed up in January of 2011. Before, months earlier, there had been daily visits by wild rabbits who liked to eat our grass.
My husband, Irv, loved the rabbits so much that when he was dying in 2008, he was asked if he wanted to go to our home, or if he wanted to go to a rehab facility. He said there was something he wanted to do at home, even if he could do little else, and that was to see the rabbits in the back yard. The hospital knew he would have to go to a hospice facility, for I could not take care of 210pound man in a hospital bed. I had weak arms. I could not turn him over.
So I came home to pack for hospice, the first time I had left Irv in 12 days. He died while I was at home doing what he could not do during those days, paying bills. Bills always must be paid even if the spirit is leaving for Home. There were two rabbits in the yard when Irv died at noon, watching me; the watchingness of rabbits was forever printed on my eyes. They were sending a message from beyond.
But there had been no one there for five months when Flopsy came. And she came because I asked our Creator for a sign as to whether I should undertake a certain scary medical treatment.
Later, Ashby came in response to another request, on a very dark day when I needed a friend very badly, and asked Creator to send a friend. Not a friend with a message, just a friend.
Ashby was there in the yard when I came home that day. Small and motionless and ash-colored. Not moving at all, not eating grass. Staring off to the northwest, where the sun would set four hours later, still staring in that direction when the sun actually set and his image became invisible in the Meadow. Although small, he was like a lion, like a sphinx guarding me and the yard from evil.
Ashby does not come often, only when he is needed. He Watches from the other side of things.
Months earlier, before Ashby came, I told the Creator that I would put out a "fleece" (a literal rabbit fleece in this case), that Creator should send a rabbit if Creator wanted me to go to Mayo for the evil "shot". Then I said to Him, no, that's superstitious! I withdraw the fleece request! No rabbit had come for five months at that time.
But when I walked into the living room, there was Flopsy, a very large rabbit with roan fur, looking expectantly at me, as if she had been sent and wondered why.
But I had already cancelled the fleece! So this was not an answer to my question. It was just a message from Creator, who wanted to let me know He heard me. So there I was, unsure still of what to do about going for the scary medical treatment, but knowing that Creator loved me enough to send Flopsy to watch me back.
The first rabbit whom I named was Flopsy, a large beige rabbit with red tinges (roan rabbit fur?) and long reddish thin ears. There had been no rabbits in the Meadow for five months when Flopsy showed up in January of 2011. Before, months earlier, there had been daily visits by wild rabbits who liked to eat our grass.
My husband, Irv, loved the rabbits so much that when he was dying in 2008, he was asked if he wanted to go to our home, or if he wanted to go to a rehab facility. He said there was something he wanted to do at home, even if he could do little else, and that was to see the rabbits in the back yard. The hospital knew he would have to go to a hospice facility, for I could not take care of 210pound man in a hospital bed. I had weak arms. I could not turn him over.
So I came home to pack for hospice, the first time I had left Irv in 12 days. He died while I was at home doing what he could not do during those days, paying bills. Bills always must be paid even if the spirit is leaving for Home. There were two rabbits in the yard when Irv died at noon, watching me; the watchingness of rabbits was forever printed on my eyes. They were sending a message from beyond.
But there had been no one there for five months when Flopsy came. And she came because I asked our Creator for a sign as to whether I should undertake a certain scary medical treatment.
Later, Ashby came in response to another request, on a very dark day when I needed a friend very badly, and asked Creator to send a friend. Not a friend with a message, just a friend.
Ashby was there in the yard when I came home that day. Small and motionless and ash-colored. Not moving at all, not eating grass. Staring off to the northwest, where the sun would set four hours later, still staring in that direction when the sun actually set and his image became invisible in the Meadow. Although small, he was like a lion, like a sphinx guarding me and the yard from evil.
Ashby does not come often, only when he is needed. He Watches from the other side of things.
Months earlier, before Ashby came, I told the Creator that I would put out a "fleece" (a literal rabbit fleece in this case), that Creator should send a rabbit if Creator wanted me to go to Mayo for the evil "shot". Then I said to Him, no, that's superstitious! I withdraw the fleece request! No rabbit had come for five months at that time.
But when I walked into the living room, there was Flopsy, a very large rabbit with roan fur, looking expectantly at me, as if she had been sent and wondered why.
But I had already cancelled the fleece! So this was not an answer to my question. It was just a message from Creator, who wanted to let me know He heard me. So there I was, unsure still of what to do about going for the scary medical treatment, but knowing that Creator loved me enough to send Flopsy to watch me back.
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