Have Your Pets Spayed or Neutered

Last summer as I was mowing the lawn, I ran the mower over what looked like a pile of loose fur covering a large divot in the ground. After passing over the hole with the lawnmower, I swiped at the pile with my foot so as to toss it into the air where it could blow away. To my shock, at that moment, there was an explosion out of the hole as 5 baby rabbits leaped out of their concealment and scattered before my eyes.

After letting out a rather girly squeal, I quickly looked around at the adjacent back yards to see which of my neighbors had witnessed my embarrassing display of terror. Fortunately, no one was around so I quickly grabbed a shovel to coralle the little fur balls into a group until I could decide what to do with them.

After much deliberation, I decided that in honor of my baby (still in the womb at the time), I would let the rodents live as long as they got out of my yard. Unfortunately, baby rabbits turn into big rabbits and then they do what rodents do best - they make more rodents!

Here we are about a year later and to my dismay, I found another conspicuous hole under our pine tree the other day. Having awakened my memory of the last surprise, I grabbed my shovel and went to uncover the creatures that lurked just below the surface of my unsuspecting suburban lawn. This time there was no eruption from beneath the loose pile of fur. In fact, there was barely a sound from the 8 newborn rabbits that I found in the hole!

Now that the initial tenderness of becoming a dad has worn off, I had to come up with a plan to get rid of the little varmints. These ones weren't cute yet so disposing of them wasn't an emotional hurdle at all. After much creative brainstorming, I decided that I would help support someone who has an interest in one of my hobbies (see below in Hobbyology post). I chose to feed the rabbits to the hawks!

In a nearby neighborhood, there lives a falconer with his own hawk. Hawks have to eat and I had to get rid of some rabbits. It was a match made in Heaven (or Hades if you're one of those animal activist). After all, what better opportunity to live vicariously through a local falconer. Anyway, in case you're wondering, the rabbits were dead when they got devoured so I wasn't completely heartless.

Anyway, this story should serve as a warning to all of you: have your pets spayed or neutered...or I might just feed their offspring to the hawks!