What happened to you?

The other day, I was about to let myself into my workshop, when I found this dead bunny lying in front of the doorway. It didn't seem to be injured and it showed no signs of 'mixey', it just lay there looking picturesque like this. Judging from the state of it's eyes, it hadn't been dead long. The only reason I am putting this picture up is because I think it has laid down in an artistic sort of way, allowing for a good photo-opportunity. This isn't an RIP.

My workshop is surrounded by rabbits, which is why I have never bothered to dig a little allotment there. I would have to eat an awful lot of rabbit before I could start eating vegetables. Their presence is a good attraction for Buzzards though - which are not averse to eating nothing but slugs if the pickings are thin.

In fact, my workshop is surrounded by all sorts of wildlife - I have seen 3 sorts of deer there, grass snakes, weasels, foxes, Peregrine Falcons, Heron, the afore-mentioned Buzzards, Sparrow-Hawks, every kind of bird including 2 species of Woodpecker, and a couple of years ago, I saw some black and white Dippers over the stream - are rare form of the Wren family. If they all arrived in one go, the place would look like one of those old 'Shell' posters of the South of England that used to adorn the walls of primary schools.

My workshop is divided into two - one large and one small room. The rats live in the large bit and the mice live in the small. Bats come in it at night, through an arrow-slit window, and owls hoot in the nearby trees, even during the day. There is a man who regularly comes looking for his cat, which regularly comes hunting rabbits in the field. It takes the caught rabbit into my workshop, eats it, then goes to sleep for the rest of the night - no need to go home. The suspected Black Puma that haunts this area (like the Beast of Exmoor) has been seen in this field too, but not by me.

One day, a tiny, baby, ornamental domestic rabbit of a beautiful lilac colour came lolloping down the path, and stood looking at me. I went to pick it up and put it in a box, because the little thing had inadvertently wandered into an extremely hostile environment for a pink bunny. Unfortunately, one of the dogs got there before I did and chased it into a bramble bush, so I left a bowl of water for it and hoped for the best. Next morning, there were small tufts of lilac fur strewn in front of the brambles. The other rabbits must have kicked it out as an intruder. If your furry face doesn't fit here, then it's a hard world. Red in tooth and claw...